The Labyrinth
by Jon'ic Recheio
Summary: “What?” Jack snapped, turning around to glare at Ianto, only to pause and frown in confusion at the warping air instead. “What the hell is that?” Some myths should just stay myths. What would you do if you were trapped in one?
1. This Rainy Day Sucks!

Hey, all! I've gone and written myself a new story. No orignal characters this time! That didn't seem to go over well. Hm...wonder why? Anyway, read this mildly creepy and action packed episode to make up for the previous disasters I have written. Review! Oh, and there's only four chapters to this one because I had to break up the story funny so it would flow right...

* * *

"Well, this is just shitty." Ianto grumbled, pulling his suit jacket tighter around himself in a useless attempt to ward off the rain.

They'd been wandering around Bute Park for hours now and the rain had started falling in force an hour ago. It had been drizzling all day, but no one had paid it any mind. Ianto was of the opinion _someone_ should have thought to bring an umbrella. Of course, those sorts of things were his job and if anyone was to blame for the oversight, he was. He'd hear it when they got back to the Hub, he was sure. Right now though, he would murder for anything that could be used to shelter him from the rain.

He sighed loudly and plodded on, one hand holding the middle of his jacket to keep it pulled tight and the other clutching a PDA in a shaking grip. He was so _cold_. If it wasn't a matter of life or death—strangely, everything seemed to be these days—he wouldn't even have dreamt the idea to be out searching the Park for the source of the strange readings. It wasn't Rift energy that the computers had picked up, he'd double checked that. No, it was something else, something unfamiliar that had given Jack pause.

Thus, there they were, mucking about a soaking wet, muddy park looking for an elusive piece of technology when everyone else was cuddled up to their loved ones with a steaming mug of hot cocoa. He'd murder for some of that, too. The loved one and the hot cocoa. He didn't think Jack would agree to that right now, though. None of them would. Even Gwen had used this miserable search to escape the pity-filled eyes of Rhys. He and Jack had tried to comfort each other, really had, but Jack couldn't find it in himself to feel anything for anyone at the moment.

Ianto doubted he even gave two shakes about the Doctor right now.

Being buried alive for 1,872 years could do that to a person, Ianto decided. He couldn't begrudge Jack his emotionless state right now, didn't think he ever could. For him, it had been almost two thousand years instead of two hours. It hurt Ianto's head to think about it, so he tried desperately not to, but found his mind drifting back to it anyway. Something about the brutal horror of it drew his damaged psyche to it. He couldn't help it. Jack had died and revived every three minutes for almost two thousand years, then came back to losing Toshiko and Owen.

That had to have done some serious mental damage. Ianto counted himself lucky, for all it hurt to think. He didn't think it was lucky Owen and Toshiko died, but he felt far better than Jack did and found himself thinking—much to his own shame—that he was glad he wasn't Jack right now. Normally, he found himself vaguely jealous of the Captain, but now, now he just thanked his lucky stars that he wasn't even remotely close to being Jack. He didn't know what he would do with himself if he were.

Suicide was most definitely out.

Being perpetually alive sort of clinched that deal, anyway. You couldn't kill yourself when it was impossible for you to die. Ianto was sure Jack had thought it, though. He'd seen it behind his lover's eyes for days afterwards. The feeling had faded, leaving in its wake an eerie hollowness that almost made Ianto long for the deep, pure, heart wrenching agony. At least then he knew Jack was in there somewhere. Now he felt like he was conversing everyday with an empty shell that had happened to borrow Jack's face.

Ianto pulled in a halting breath, the cold making it harder to breathe. He was soaking wet and bone deep miserable, but it was still better than sitting around the depressive atmosphere of the Hub bringing everyone so many cups of tea that they ran out of space on their desks for them.

It was times like these he wished he could do more than clean up other people's shit and make damn good beverages. He felt useless, impotent; like there wasn't thing he could do besides shout at the stars and rage at the uncaring cosmos. He'd done his fair share of that, it became boring after a while, and completely pointless, too. He sighed and flexed his left hand, which was tightly gripping the front of his jacket. His hand was starting to ache, but he didn't care. He just kept following the yellow flashing light on his water-proofed PDA. The light kept shifting, causing him to have to change his direction, but each time he did, it got closer.

"This is such shit." Ianto muttered, teeth clattering harshly.

"I know, it is, isn't?" Gwen said from his right. She sighed heavily. "Still, I'll take this over sitting around doing nothing. Even freezing to death in the rain beats sitting around doing nothing."

"Yeah, it does." Ianto acknowledged softly. He adjusted his grip on the PDA. "What do you think, Jack? Will we find it soon?"

"You're the one with the PDA, you tell me." Jack replied distractedly, blue eyes roving slowly around the scenery. He didn't seem particularly affected by the rain, even though his coat had turned a deep shade of grey from the wet.

"It's getting closer." Ianto answered vaguely, unable to get a more accurate reading. He growled, suddenly irrationally angry, and banged the PDA on his other hand, letting go of his jacket. "Dammit! We need Toshiko; I don't know how to work this!"

"Well, we don't have her!" Jack whirled around and snarled at him, blue eyes as cold as the rain. "So, figure it out! Unless _you'd_ like to be the one looking for her replacement?"

"Oh, for God's sake, Jack, leave him alone!" Gwen interceded, just as angry as Jack, if not more so. "He's grieving, we all are! This isn't ideal, I understand, but we need to make due. Shouting at each other isn't going to make this any easier."

"Speak for yourself." Jack told her, voice deceptively level. "I've already got someone lined up to replace her. And Owen. I'm interviewing them tomorrow."

"How could you?" Ianto asked eyes wide with shock. He stopped walking to stare open-mouthed at Jack. "It's only been three weeks, Jack! You can't seriously be considering replacing them yet?"

"Why not?" Jack asked, completely unfazed by the emotion on Ianto's face. "It's been three weeks, Ianto. We should've had replacements two weeks ago. I held off this long, it's time I stopped putting it off and actually got it over with."

"That's easy for you to say!" Gwen snapped, affronted and angry. "You were buried under the ground for two thousand years, we were stuck here! What to you want from us, Jack? For us to just _switch off_ our emotions and forget that Owen and Tosh ever existed?"

There was a long, tense pause before Jack answered her. "Yes, that's exactly what I want you to do."

"Well, alright then," Gwen said disbelief tangible in her voice. "I'm sorry; Jack, but I can't do that. I _won't_."

"Then don't." Jack shrugged. He snatched the PDA from Ianto's lax grip, turned on his heels, then stalked off in the direction of the yellow dot. "Either follow me or go home and forget Torchwood ever existed. Your choice."

Gwen and Ianto shared a long, hard look, before jogging to catch up with Captain Harkness.

Losing Toshiko and Owen was one thing, but losing the memory of their sacrifice would just be cruel. They deserved to be remembered by the people that cared about them until the end of time, not to be wiped out by a drug used to keep people quiet. Ianto had the startling, if not somewhat despairing thought, that the old Jack would never had said that to them. He didn't threaten people with retcon, not over something like that, simply because two years of his own life had been snatched from him.

Ianto had thought that would always be a deciding factor in Jack's personality.

He was apparently wrong.

Before Ianto could think any further on the subject a strange shimmering, almost like a bubble, passed by the corner of his eye. He frowned, stopping to spin around in place in an attempt to catch the strange phenomenon head on. Eyes wide and stinging in the rain, he stood there a few moments before shrugging it off and trotting after Gwen. If he saw it again he'd say something, for now he'd keep quiet about it. No use chasing after strange things you've seen out of the corner of your eye. Those sorts of sightings were notoriously unreliable.

Rolling his eyes to the sky he trudged on, both arms wrapped around his middle to defend against the cold. He didn't remember ever being this miserable at Torchwood before, not counting the incident with Lisa, of course. That was something else entirely in his mind. It had nothing to do with Torchwood and everything to do with Canary Warf. They were two separate things to him. They hadn't been at first, but then he'd met Jack and suddenly they had become two different entities. Jack had that effect on things, Ianto noticed. He could twist it to fit what he wanted it to be. He supposed that's why Jack liked the Doctor so well; he couldn't twist the Time Lord.

The strange wave-y bubbling passed the corner of his eye again and Ianto whirled around to get a good look at it. He frowned. The air was bending, shifting, like a heat wave rising off the road in the middle of summer. His brows scrunched as he stared it head on, trying to figure out what it could possibly be.

"Jack!" he called out, eyes fixed on the strange shimmer about the size and shape of a door.

"What?" Jack snapped, turning around to glare at Ianto, only to pause and frown in confusion at the warping air instead. "What the hell is that?"

"What the hell is what?" Gwen asked tiredly, also turning to face Ianto. Her jaw dropped. "Is the air supposed to be doing that?"

"I'd wager a no." Ianto said, arms coming to rest at his sides, cold completely forgotten. He made to take a step towards it, but Jack's panicked shout stopped him.

"Ianto, don't!" the Captain raced the ten yards over to Ianto, yanking him viciously away from the strange bubble-door in the air. "Don't you even _dream_ of goin' near that! I won't lose someone else!"

"Alright, Jack," Ianto agreed, carefully removing his jacket sleeves from Jack's steel grip. He swallowed and gently pried the PDA from Jack's cold hand. "Let me see it, Jack. I might be able to determine exactly what this is."

"It's a bubble." Jack informed him solemnly. "We should go, now, before it snatches us, too."

"Snatch us?" Gwen asked, voice trembling. "I don't like the sound of that. How do we stop it?"

"We don't." Jack answered her, voice flat. "It has a set requirement that it has to meet, then it disappears on its own, there's nothing we can do."

"Well, I just won't accept that." Gwen insisted stubbornly. She squared her shoulders, then darted towards the shimmer, running into it before Jack could stop her.

"Gwen, no!" he shouted uselessly, watching on in horror as Gwen just _vanished_. His arm dropped to his side as he stared at the shimmer. It was still there, mocking them. "Dammit! Why did she do that? Gwen!"

"C'mon," Ianto started, putting the PDA away in his pocket. He grabbed Jack's hand. "We have to go in and get her."

"No!" Jack braced his feet and pulled Ianto back. "If we go in, we get stuck too."

"Does that really matter?" Ianto asked, getting a strange feeling of emptiness in his gut. "What else is there, Jack? We've already lost Tosh and Owen; I won't lose her, too. Let me go."

"No, I won't." Jack told him, eyes hard once again, no longer showing the blind panic they had earlier. He clutched Ianto's hand tighter. "We'll both go."

With that, he stepped forward, pulling Ianto into the bending, shifting, doorway with him.

Ianto thought the rain had been cold. He was wrong. Stepping through the doorway felt like someone had stuck him in front of an industrial fan and threw a bucket of ice water on his head. He gasped, the feeling freezing his chest and limbs. He felt like he was flying standing vertical, it made him impossibly dizzy. The Park spun around the edges of his vision, zooming and swirling all at once. His stomach flipped, he was going to be sick he was sure. The little ice spiders crawled along his skin, his hands were numb. He couldn't feel Jack, could barely feel himself.

Suddenly, all of the motion stopped.

He hit old, moldy, wet brick, the gouges and pock marks forcing a gruesome pattern on his right cheek. He groaned, his chest protesting from hitting the ground abruptly and without padding. Wincing with the pain that shot through his skull and bounced around in his teeth, Ianto pushed up to rest on his knees. He blinked his eyes, trying to adjust them to the dim light of the stone room he seemed to have landed in. He glanced around, turning his head to see behind himself. He froze when he spotted a lump of clothing and pale flesh. Pushing rapidly to his feet as he dared, Ianto stumbled over to investigate.

He fell to his knees with a harsh thump next to the body and swiftly rolled it over, only to feel a sharp stab of fear lance through his chest. It was Gwen. He checked to make sure she was breathing and alive. She was, thankfully. Pushing his terror away for the moment, Ianto hauled her into his lap, trying to wake her. He opened her eyelids checking for a concussion, and finding none, felt himself relax further. She was just unconscious with no danger of falling into a coma, luckily.

"Gwen. Gwen!" Ianto shook her roughly, attempting to wake her. He coughed, breathing in the strange mist that seemed to permeate this place.

There was no sign of Jack.

"C'mon, Gwen!" Ianto urged. "Don't leave me alone in this strange medieval dungeon. Wake up!"

"Huh?" Gwen mumbled, hazel eyes blinking slowly open.

What she saw made her pause. There were clumps of mold and fungus, growing mostly at the tops of the walls where they met the ceiling. It was a strange incandescent purple color that Gwen was sure was more deadly than it looked. Most things in nature tended to be that way. Especially when pretty. The walls themselves were made of stone and obviously very old. They fit together well enough, but Gwen could see gaps where tar used to be but had eroded away. There wasn't the sound of water, but the walls were wet, dripping in some places but not in others.

There was a strange smoke-like mist that hung oppressively in the air, irritating the lungs. Not enough to cause coughing, but enough to make you want to. It stifled everything else and she couldn't help but breathe it in. It seemed to be in the same concentration on the floor as it was at the ceiling, which struck her as odd. Most gasses sunk, floated, or hung in the middle. They didn't disperse evenly. Not to her knowledge anyway, which if she admitted it, wasn't very extensive. It was all very odd and only served to make her feel even more discomforted.

"Ianto?" Gwen asked, clearing her throat from the mist. "Where are we?"

"I dunno." Ianto answered, helping Gwen sit up slowly. "I just got here. I found you unconscious. Jack was with me, but now he isn't. We were holding hands; I don't understand how he could have landed somewhere else."

"Maybe he didn't come through at all." Gwen suggested, climbing unsteadily to her feet. She braced her hand against the wall, grimacing at the slimly feel of the rock. "He's not exactly normal, you know. Maybe he didn't meet the portal's requirements. It's just a thought."

"Yeah, maybe," Ianto acknowledged, eyes roving around their new environment. "I hope so, anyway. He'll be able to think of a way to get us out. Because, right now, we're stuck with no way to leave. I don't see a door, do you?"

"No," Gwen said with a sigh. She turned and began to walk towards the far wall, only to jump back in surprise when a section of the wall slid away to reveal a passage. "I think I found one, Ianto."

"I suppose it's better than nothing." Ianto said resignedly. He straightened the hem of his jacket. "Going forward is better than staying in here. We need to find the source of the water; we're going to need it in a few hours."

"Yeah, we are, aren't we?" Gwen asked rhetorically. She squared her shoulders and gathered her courage. "Right. Let's go. Maybe we'll find a way out."

"I hope so." Ianto mumbled, following Gwen down the damp passage. "I really do."

TWL

"Ow!" Jack grunted out harshly as he impacted wet stone. Groaning in pain, he rolled onto his back, eyes starring unseeingly up at the ceiling.

Blinking blearily in the dim light, he slowly sat upright, eyes scanning his new surroundings for entrances and exits. There seemed to be nothing. It was just a completely enclosed stone room with strange smoky mist and fluorescent purple fungus growing on the walls. With a sigh, he slowly stood, spinning around in place, still searching for an exit. He didn't find one. Rolling his eyes skyward in exasperation, he opened his Vortex Manipulator, intent on using it to find the door.

He pressed a series of buttons and a harmonious beep sounded in the damp chamber. With a sigh, Jack walked over to the north wall and waited for the door to open. It slid open with a loud, grating, groaning noise that made him wince and cover his ears until it passed. The hallway beyond the strangely advanced door resembled the chamber, mist and all. Shaking out the tension in his shoulders, Jack set out down the hallway, intent on finding Ianto, Gwen, and the way out.

It seemed odd to him that Ianto wasn't there. He should have been, they'd been holding hands when they'd stepped through the shimmer. It didn't make sense that Ianto would end up somewhere separate from him. Jack felt worry slice through his guts as a thought occurred to him. Maybe the portal had killed Ianto; maybe he'd been dead when he landed! No, that couldn't be right; he remembered hitting the ground then sitting up, no pauses in between. Then again, he couldn't use that as a reliable indicator anymore. After the thousandth time he'd died under the Earth, it had all started to blur together. He couldn't remember when he was alive or dead, or had just died.

The thought didn't disturb him as much as it should have. He'd had thousands of years to think about it. For three minute segments, of course, but those added up in the long run. He'd found that out too while buried alive. He'd also found out that all of the shit he had went through before hand was a drop in the proverbial bucket compared to that. He should hate Grey, knew he should, but instead he only hated himself. He'd abandoned Grey, drove him to that point. It was his fault, not Grey's. It could never be Grey's. As long as he lived, his brother would, too. He'd vowed that every time he died. He swore to himself that Grey would live on, if only so he could wallow in the memory.

Jack sighed and forced his hands into his damp pant's pockets. He would have been bothered by the wet if it wasn't so warm in the hallway. It was warm and his throat burned every time he took a breath. For the first time, Jack noticed the mist. He'd ignored it before, figuring it was just smoky air in a cramped space. Now, though, he thought different. The air was the same in the passageway as it had been in the chamber. That hardly made sense as the chamber was air tight and looked as if it hadn't been used in centuries. Nothing fit right now, he bemoaned silently. Why couldn't something just—

A scream pierced the air, making Jack jump and sprint down the passageway looking for the source.

He tore around a corner, nearly sliding into a wall on the slick floor. He ran straight ahead, then turned sharply left, heart thudding in his ears and against his ribcage. He skidded to a halt in front of an open door, panting for breath. Sitting there on the floor was a girl, barely nineteen. She had frizzy brown hair, an average looking face and was far too skinny to be completely healthy. She wore designer jeans and a tight shirt with short sleeves. She looked cold to Jack's eyes. Her brown eyes were wide with fright, as if something had just jumped out of the wall and scared her.

"Are you alright?" Jack asked, walking carefully into the room.

"Ye-yeah," she stuttered out, slowly standing. She swallowed hard and pulled a lock of her hair behind her right ear. "Wh-wh-who are you?"

"Jack," he answered, trying to appear non-threatening, "you?"

"Amy," she answered softly, taking in a deep breath. "Where are we?"

"I dunno," Jack answered with a casual shrug. "I was hoping you could tell me, to be honest. How long have you been here, Amy?"

"Two days according to my watch," she held up her wrist so Jack could see the aforementioned device. "I dunno if it's right, though. It doesn't seem like two days, it can't have been two days."

"You're from London?" Jack asked, finally placing her accent.

"You're from America?" she countered with a smile. She sighed heavily. "I was just going for a walk in Bute Park, then all of the sudden, the air rippled and here I was. I've been wandering around this dungeon for two days now and I haven't seen another living soul."

"I'd say that's a good thing." Jack returned with a grin. He stretched out his hand. "C'mon, let's go. Maybe we can find a way out of here."

"I don't think so." Amy told him resignedly. "I've been down here for days. There isn't a way out. There can't be. I would have found it by now," she coughed suddenly, rubbing her chest. "This mist is driving me absolutely crazy!"

"What is it, anyway?" Jack inquired, leading the way back down the hallway he had come from.

"I dunno." Amy answered him with a shrug. "I've been trying to figure it out since I first got here, but I can't think of what it could be. I mean, it's everywhere, even in the airtight rooms, which makes no logical sense."

"Yeah, it doesn't." Jack agreed. He consulted his Vortex Manipulator, scanning the air. He frowned when he got the result. "I can't pick it up. It won't register on my instruments. Huh."

"Where did you get that?" Amy asked, openly admiring Jack's wrist computer. "I've never seen anything like that before."

"Government prototype," Jack lied, knowing what would happen if he didn't give her an answer. She was too sharp to fall for vague misdirection. "I work for UNIT; we have a lot of new tech we're testing."

"Oh, really?" Amy scoffed, sounding highly suspicious. "Let's see your ID, then. I don't wanna be stuck here with a lying psychopath."

"Okay," Jack removed his psychic paper from his inner jacket pocket and flashed it at Amy. "See, UNIT."

"Captain Jack Harkness, R&D," Amy quoted the fake ID. She shrugged, then pulled Jack's sleeve when they came to a fork in the path, "works for me. C'mon G-man, we should go left. I've gone right a hundred times. It only leads to a dead end."

"Sure, why not?" Jack said rhetorically, following after Amy. He was content to let her lead him around for the moment, as he had no earthly clue where he was. She did.

They walked along in companionable silence for a while before Jack decided to ask her a question. She'd been screaming when he found her, he wanted to know why. There hadn't been anything in the room and unless she was frightened by falling on her ass, he seriously doubted there was nothing to worry about. He needed to know, needed to understand this place better if he was ever going to get out. And he needed to figure out what the hell the damn annoying mist was before he coughed himself into an early grave trying to rid his throat of the itchy feeling.

"Amy," Jack started after a moment of thought, "why were you screaming before? Did something scare you?"

"I-" she stopped, obviously uncomfortable. "I dunno. I just screamed. Can we leave it at that?"

"No, we can't." Jack persisted, now knowing without a doubt he was on to something. "Why did you scream? What did you see?"

"I didn't see anything." Amy stubbornly insisted, arms crossed defensively over her chest.

"Yes, you did. What was it?" Jack pushed, attempting to pressure her into answering, just like every other suspect he had ever interrogated.

"Nothing!" Amy snarled at him, brown eyes flashing.

"It wasn't nothing!" Jack shouted back, eyes far more dangerous than hers. "Tell me!"

"It was my mother!" Amy snapped back. Her shoulders slumped, all the fight leaving her. Her brown eyes misted over and she swallowed back tears. "It was my mother. She-I-she's dead. It's my fault. I saw her and she was fine, but then-but then she wasn't. She was dead! A corpse, just standing there. Flesh rotting off of her bones and eyes from hell itself! That's what I saw! Happy now?"

"No," Jack told her bluntly. He looked around, eyes frantically scanning the damp passageway. It had suddenly taken on a more sinister air. "This is gonna sound callous, and maybe it is, but do you have a history of mental illness?"

"No!" Amy snapped back indignantly. "And before you say it, it wasn't grief. She's been dead for six years now. If I was going to hallucinate her, I would have done it years ago. I didn't."

"Maybe," Jack answered with a nonchalant shrug. "The mind is a delicate thing, Amy. This is a stressful situation; I wouldn't blame you for seeing her."

"Yeah, neither would I." Amy acknowledged softly. She licked her dry lips. "But I know I wouldn't have seen her dead like that. I don't know why I…"

"Situations like these can warp you, Amy." Jack told her solemnly, voice devoid of empathy. "I'd know."

"Well, you would, wouldn't you?" Amy muttered darkly. "Mister Top-Secret-Government-Man. Bet you've seen all sorts of scary shit. Bet this is an average day at the office for you."

"Yeah, it is," Jack answered with a heavy sigh, "unfortunately."

* * *

Okay, that's the end of chappie one. Tell me what ya think!


	2. Don't Believe Your Mind

OKie dokie, here's chappie number two. It's the shortest one, the other two are really huge. Sorry 'bout that. You'll have to wait until tomorrow for the next.

* * *

TWL

Ianto sighed and rolled his head, trying to ease the tension in his neck. It had been building up steadily since he'd fallen into this place with Gwen. They'd been walking for two hours now. After leaving the room they had landed in, they'd discovered fairly quickly they were in some sort of perverse maze. The glowing purple fungus lit the hallways as they walked on, not sure where they were going, only that they needed to find the way out and do it quickly. Some clue as to where they were wouldn't go amiss either, Ianto decided. If he could figure out where they were, it would be easier to get out and go home.

Home to job replacements and hellish interviews.

Ianto had visions of going through thirty people before Jack found "the right one for the job". He remembered how hard it had been for him to convince Jack to hire him. Of course, the only reason he'd persisted was because of Lisa. He'd needed Torchwood's resources at the time. They were the only way to keep her alive. So, he'd gone to the one man who could help him with that, Captain Jack Harkness, long time agent of the Torchwood Institute. Immortal agent of the Institute, apparently, though he hadn't known that at the time. It's a good thing he hadn't gone through with his plan of getting rid of the Captain; he would have been up shit creek without a paddle if he'd done so.

Not like he wasn't anyway at the moment. He and Gwen were both up the proverbial creek without that blasted rhetorical paddle. Right now, he wished for a magical doorway that would take him back to Bute Park, rain and cold in all. He'd give anything to breathe in the fresh, clear air instead of this smoky mist that irritated the lining of his throat. He'd commit treason for a throat lozenge.

"How long have we been wandering in circles?" Gwen's question cut through Ianto's thoughts like a hot knife.

"Um, about two hours now," Ianto answered her dutifully.

"Ugh, really?" Gwen said with a longsuffering sigh. She wrapped her arms around her middle. "Don't you think its a little cold in here?"

"Just a little," Ianto acknowledged absently.

"It was warmer down that last corridor." Gwen observed with a frown on her face. "Why is that, I wonder?"

"I dunno." Ianto told her, now becoming concerned. "Why would it suddenly get colder, that hardly makes any sense."

"Not one lick," Gwen agreed, stopping to look around the hallway better. It looked like every other hallway, glowing purple fungus near the ceiling and all. "The passageway is the same, I don't understand. Why, when we turned down this hallway, did it suddenly get colder?"

"Maybe we're close to the exit." Ianto suggested, hope blooming in his chest. "It was awfully cold outside, maybe whoever built this place left the door open."

"Doubt that." Gwen said, resting her hands on her hips. "Why would they lock us in so well but leave the door open? That makes less sense than it suddenly getting colder."

"Could be ghosts," Ianto said jokingly, trying to lighten the mood. "Isn't it supposed to get colder when one enters the room?"

"Oh, right," Gwen chuckled with him, smiling for a brief moment before getting serious once again. "No, I don't think it's ghosts, either. It has to be something else, something we haven't seen yet. Maybe something is sucking the heat of the corridor and using it for something else?"

"I don't think it's that, either." Ianto answered, now starting to shiver. "I think it just got colder in here, Gwen. It feels like the morgue, only worse."

"Yes, I think it did." Gwen crossed her arms in an attempt to keep some of her body heat. Both she and Ianto's clothes were still damp from the rain. It would take them forever to dry in the humid atmosphere of the maze.

"C'mon, we should keep moving." Ianto said, urging her onward. "It's colder if we just stand here doing nothing."

"Right, of course. Sleeping in the snow and all of that, right?" Gwen put forth rhetorically, following after Ianto.

"I suppose." Ianto replied distractedly, eyes moving rapidly in their sockets, trying to see everything at once. The last time he'd been locked up in the dark had involved cannibals. He'd rather not repeat the experience.

"Oh, well, if you only-"

"Hold it right there!" a menacing voice shouted from an open doorway on their left.

Gwen and Ianto swung around in the direction it had come from, guns drawn and pointed at the source. A young man stood there, wielding a sharp-looking stick he'd obviously been using for hiking. His blue eyes were wide with terror and his blond hair was matted with dirt and sweat. He looked like he'd been wandering around the maze for days, if not a week. His cargo pants were ripped and his blue striped button up shirt was torn at the left sleeve. He was covered in general grime and there was a glowing purple streak on his right thigh.

"Um…" the man, no older than nineteen, lowered his stick. He dropped it on the floor and raised both of his hands. "…I surrender?"

"Who are you?" Gwen demanded tightly, gun unwavering.

"Barty," he said quickly, voice shaking. "Please don't shoot me! I may want to get outta here at any cost, but I don't wanna die. Please don't shoot."

"Oh, for God's sake," Gwen rolled her eyes and sheathed her gun, Ianto copying her action. "How long have you been down here, Barty?"

"Four days." Barty answered them, still appearing twitchy.

"Where did you find water?" Ianto inquired, starting to feel thirsty.

"Down the corridor, turn left, then right, then straight, then left, then left and a right." Barty told them so quickly, they could barely understand a word he had said, much less remember it.

"Why don't you just show us, Barty?" Gwen requested kindly, holding in her annoyance at the rapidly given directions.

"No!" Barty exclaimed, backing away. "I won't believe you again! I don't talk to ghosts! You're not here. You're not! _Go away_!"

"Barty, we aren't ghosts." Gwen said patiently, trying to reassure the frightened man.

"No, not you!" Barty hissed at her, eyes darting around manically. He thrust a finger out; pointing at a spot on the wall just to Gwen's left. "Them! Them! _Them_! Can't you see? Can't you _see_? They're there. They want me. They want _me_!"

"Barty, there's nothing there." Gwen told him, fighting to keep her voice level and expression welcoming in the face of Barty's blind terror.

"Gwen's right, Barty," Ianto started, turning to look in the direction Barty had pointed. "No one is-" Ianto stopped, shouting in alarm and taking a step back. His chest heaved and his heart beat a punishing rhythm in his chest. "Lisa?"

He couldn't be seeing her, he couldn't. Not like this, not like this. She was dead, she was. He knew she was! Yet, there she stood, Cyberman armor and all. Blood ran down various parts of her body, scars and wounds from the pterodactyl and the bullets that had ultimately took her life, marring her perfect mocha skin. Ianto stood there, frozen in place with the shock of seeing her. She shouldn't be here. She shouldn't be _here_!

"Ianto?" Gwen's panicked question snapped Ianto back into reality.

He blinked, shaking his head and rubbing harshly at his eyes. He squinted, trying to see Lisa again, only to find the place where she had been standing just empty air. Air that now had more menace to it than it had before. He swallowed thickly, forcing his emotions back into the locked box in his mind. He could deal with it later, for now he had other matters to attend to. Like helping Barty and getting them all out of this wretched place alive.

"Ianto, are you all right? What's going on?" Gwen's rapid-fire questions served to anchor Ianto further in the now and drag him out of his suddenly life-size memory.

"I'm fine, Gwen." Ianto told her, attempting a reassuring smile. It fell flat. "Just thought I saw something. Must be the day catching up to us."

"They were here." Barty said slowly, voice chillingly hollow. He frowned at the empty air. "I saw them, they were back. They _were_ back!"

"Barty, calm down," Gwen ordered sternly, done with being gentle. "Get a grip and help us find water."

"Y-yeah, sure, no problem—no problem. I'll help. That's what I do. I help." Barty rambled, voice dissolving into a mutter. "I catalogue and help like a good little student. Barty is a good little student—good little student. Nothing bad happens to good little students, nothing. Ever never."

"I think he's lost it." Ianto said to Gwen under his breath.

"I think you're right." Gwen mumbled back, voice pitched low. "Still, he's all we've got at the moment."

"And that makes me feel so much better." Ianto muttered darkly, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

TWL

Jack sighed for what felt like the trillionth time in the past hour, rolled his shoulders, then once again focused on following Amy through the labyrinth. That's what he managed to deduce it was for all of the time they had spent wandering around in what had seemed like a circle. It was more a strange square circuit than being round, but that didn't really matter. What mattered was the pattern he was able to track as they kept walking. Nearly every turn they had taken had been a left turn. He wasn't sure if they were heading in towards the center, or out towards the edge, but they'd find out sooner or later. He'd be alright if it took them a hundred years to find the exit. Unfortunately, Amy wouldn't. She'd be dead within three weeks, if not sooner if they didn't find water.

"Did you manage to find a water source yet?" Jack asked, desperate to find something to break the silence.

"No," Amy said tiredly. "I've just been licking the walls. How about you?"

"I've only been here a few hours." Jack answered her mildly. "Are you sure that's safe, licking the walls?"

"No," Amy cheekily replied. "But I'd rather not die thank you very much. I'll deal with the dysentery when I get outta here."

"Yeah, I see your point." Harkness acknowledged with a laugh. "What about food?"

"I haven't gotten desperate enough to eat that fungus yet, but I'm sure I will soon." Amy answered, trying to keep her tone light but failing. She was worried, Jack could tell.

"I wouldn't," Jack cautioned. He checked his Vortex Manipulator again, making sure they hadn't managed to backtrack without knowing it. They hadn't, yet. "I still don't know what it is; my computer won't pick it up. I don't understand why."

"Maybe it's broken." Amy suggested disinterestedly. "I mean, it's just a prototype, and if you got here the same way I did, you might have banged it on the way down."

"I didn't 'bang it"." Jack told her haughtily. He checked his computer again. "I just can't seem to get it calibrated; every time I do it reverts back to the same settings. Something here is interfering with it, but I don't know what."

"Oh, that's just swell, really." Amy said sarcastically. "Some G-Man you turned out to be. What's next, you going to tell me UNIT didn't plan for something like this happening, or that it's so classified you'd have to 'kill me if you told me'?"

"UNIT doesn't have a plan for something like this." Jack barely restrained himself from snapping at her. "They wouldn't think to plan for this. I was just investigating strange energy spikes; I didn't expect to fall through a bubble!"

"A bubble?" Amy inquired, curiosity peaked. "Is that what this is?"

"This place? No, it's not." Jack told her. He would have to retcon her after they got out anyway, it didn't matter what he told her. "The bubble is the shimmering doorway that transported us here; it's a type of teleporter. This place is just your good old fashioned labyrinth with a strange mist and glowing purple fungus."

"Oh, yeah, totally average," Amy muttered nastily. "Teleporter you said? Those don't exist. Next you're gonna tell me UNIT really defends the Earth from aliens."

"It does. Or, tries to," Jack answered her with an easy shrug. "Teleporters exist, Amy. So do aliens. They're the ones that brought us here, though for the life of me, I can't figure out why."

"Okay, that's it!" Amy exclaimed angrily, throwing her hands in the air. She whirled around to glare at Jack. "You stay right there and stop following me! I'm not gonna be stuck in a maze with some crackpot. I'd rather be alone! Get away from me!"

"Alright, alright!" Jack told her quickly, holding his hands out in a placating gesture. "I was just kidding, Amy, I swear. I'm sorry, I know now isn't the time for jokes, but I was just trying to ease the tension."

"Oh, sure you were!" Amy snapped. "You were serious; I heard it in your voice. You actually _believe_ it! Just stay the hell away from me, spaceman!"

"Okay, okay, fine!" Jack relented hurriedly, trying to calm himself down. He took in a deep breath. "But I have to say one thing, Amy. If you walk away, you'll be lost, retracing your steps until you die. I've been keeping track of where we've been. You'll lose your bread crumbs if you walk away, Amy. I'm only trying to help."

"Right and blackmail is helping me?" Amy was nearly hysterical now. "I don't think so, buddy! Goodbye!"

"No! Amy, wait!" Jack called as she stalked off, then suddenly hung a Louis, causing Jack to lose her completely. He sighed heavily, resting his head in his hands before looking up.

What he saw scared the shit out of him.

"What the hell?" Jack yelped, stumbling backwards in shock. There, standing in front of him, was the Doctor. He couldn't believe his eyes. Didn't really want to at this point. "What are you doing here? No, better yet, how the hell did you _get_ here?"

"Is that all you're going to do? Snap at me?" the Doctor asked mildly, hands stuffed in his blue suit's pockets as he rocked back and forth on his feet. He smiled widely. "I'd thought you'd have something more to say than that, Jack."

"I-" Jack stopped, unable to put his thoughts into a coherent sentence. "I—maybe. Look, how did you get here? Why didn't I hear the TARDIS, where did you land?"

"Oh, questions, questions, questions. That's all you humans ever do is ask questions." the Doctor said to the ceiling, sounding strangely irritated. His brown eyes locked onto Jack's blue ones like a laser. "Why can't you just take some things at face value, Jack? Honestly. I'm here, what more do you need to know?"

"I'll start with why." Jack shot back, suspicion burning bright in his mind. Something was wrong. "Closely followed by how, and maybe what you intend to do next. How does that sound?"

"Oh, relax!" the Doctor flapped his hand dismissively, adding in his classic facial expression for good measure. "You're fine here, Jack. A little dinged from being buried for nearly two thousand years, but none the worse for wear as far as I can see. Perfectly cold hearted, just like always. What sort of species do you plan on wiping out next? Can I watch?"

"What the _hell_ is wrong with you?" Jack demanded, voice raising an octave as he got even more disturbed by what he was seeing and hearing. "Something isn't right. Why are you saying this? What's going on?"

"Blimey, you sure do ask a lot of questions." the Doctor remarked absently, grabbing at his left ear. He shrugged and dropped his hand. His normally lively brown eyes suddenly went flat and dull. "I'm here on invitation of course, front row tickets. I wanna see how badly you'll manage to bollocks this one up. Show of a lifetime, Jack the Fact. What do you think of that, eh?"

"Stop it." Jack demanded tightly, teeth clenched and gesturing with his hand for emphasis. "Whoever you are, stop it. Now!"

"Oh, but it's true!" the Doctor exclaimed jovially. He grinned that manic grin of his. "You see, you nearly killed all of those poor people in London years ago. I thought I'd give you a second chance; see how much you can make me hate you if you're really trying at it. Admittedly, Rose helped a bit, but I wanna see you do this on your own. Much more satisfying, don't you think?"

"No, I don't." Jack told him tersely, eyes narrowing.

"Oh, that's too bad," the Doctor said, sauntering towards Jack, grin turning positively sinister. "I guess I'll have to show you how it's done then, eh?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jack asked shakily, taking a step back for every step the Doctor took towards him.

"Well, let's not get too detailed, would ruin the surprise." the Doctor said with an easy shrug. He pulled his sonic-screwdriver out of his inner suit pocket. He bounced it off the side of his head as he seemed to get lost in thought. "I could…snatch your immortality, or oh, I like this one, make you watch them die. How does that sound, Jack? Should I make you watch everyone you love die over and over again? That's the beauty of a time machine, you know. You can go anywhere twice." His usually kind brown eyes positively radiated menace. "Even _wrong_ things like you."

"Stop it, just stop!" Jack gasped out desperately, hands behind his back as he felt for the wall. He took another step back as the Doctor raised his sonic-screwdriver, a nasty smile on his face and an even nastier glow in his eyes. "Please, just stop."

"Why should I?" the Doctor demanded, voice dripping with hatred. "You didn't stop, didn't once stop to think, did you? All those people you killed, did you even think? Did you? _Did you_!"

"No! No, I didn't!" Jack shouted frantically. His chest heaved as his back roughly met the wall. He couldn't retreat any further, he was trapped. "I didn't think! I know I didn't think. I'm sorry! Please don't hate me, I'm sorry!"

"Well, sorry isn't good enough!" the Doctor screamed, tip of his sonic-screwdriver touching Jack's forehead.

Suddenly, he was gone.

Jack was left panting, back pressed firmly against the slimly wall behind him and heart beating wildly in his chest. He sucked in huge gulps of air, trying to calm his racing heart and panicked breaths. Something had gone completely to shit in the space of three seconds and he had no idea what it was. Had he really seen that? Had the Doctor really been there, saying all of those horrible things? No, of course he hadn't, Jack's heart argued. The Doctor would never say anything like that to anyone, wouldn't even think it, you know that you idiot.

Jack closed his eyes, breathing in through his nose as he collapsed back against the wall, using it to prop himself up. His legs were useless right now. He felt a shudder wrack his body and suddenly found himself fighting the urge to fall to the floor in tears. This wasn't working, it just wasn't. He should never have come here. He should have just left Gwen to this hell all on her own. No, no I couldn't do that! He scolded himself harshly. You heard what he said, he wants you to bollocks this up. Don't believe him.

"Why not?" Jack asked the air despondently. "Tell me, why not? That was him, it had to be him. I know he's thought it often enough."

"Know who's thought what?" the hesitant voice of Amy called out softly. She smiled shakily and cautiously approached Jack. "I heard you shouting. I thought-I thought I'd come back and see what was going on. You did it for me, crazy or not."

"Oh, god," Jack groaned, eyes squeezing tightly shut before opening. "I'm so sorry, Amy. I didn't mean to scare you."

"What did you see?" Amy asked him kindly, taking his hand and leading him back down the hallway.

"Someone I loved." Jack answered her cryptically, his composure slowly returning. He shook his shoulders and gathered his nerve. "C'mon, we need to get outta here, and fast. This place is going to drive us mad."

"You don't need to tell me twice." Amy agreed.

* * *

OKay, you've read, now review! Thanks for stopping by.


	3. Fear, Crazies and Monsters

Okay, here's chapter number three. One more to go then the story is finished. Have fun and review!

* * *

TWI

Ianto and Gwen hurried down the long, winding and impossibly confusing corridors and passageways after the swift-footed Barty. The crazy college student could book it, Gwen would give him that. She supposed it came from his nervous, paranoid, twitchy energy that he seemed to have. She was sure he was high-strung normally, but right now he seemed as if someone had given him half a dozen cups of espresso and a fist full of meth. The boy was, quite simply, wired. He looked as if someone had electrocuted him, dropped him in a pile of mud, then tossed him unceremoniously in this hellish maze.

Gwen still didn't know what to make of this place.

Something old and odd she had heard as a child tugged at her mind, but for the life of her, she couldn't place it or call up the details. It seemed to slip from her grasp easier than the annoying mist they were all constantly breathing in. That had to be the most annoying part of the entire situation. The mist. The cloying, oppressive, irritating and completely illogical mist. It made no rational sense, yet it was there, slowly suffocating them underneath its dastardly weight on their shoulders. Gwen sighed. It was no use thinking about it, it only made the problem worse.

The more you thought about it, the more you noticed it, Gwen decided sourly. She wanted to solve the puzzle, but she didn't want to be aware of the constant itch in the back of her throat. She had stranger things to think about. Like what had happened with Barty and Ianto. Barty she could understand, the poor boy seemed to have gone barmy for being trapped in the maze. Ianto was a completely different story. Even with Lisa, Gwen was fully aware that Ianto had been completely in control of his mental facilities.

Right now, she wasn't so sure.

To her, it had seemed like Ianto had been hallucinating along with Barty, even though they both had obviously been seeing different things. Barty had seen ghosts and who knew what else. Ianto had seen Lisa. She'd heard him say the dead woman's name just before he'd snapped out of it. At precisely same time as Barty, Gwen noticed with a concerned frown. She glanced around the hallway, finding it exactly the same as the last hundred or so they had traveled down. She wasn't worried about the mist or the glowing fungus anymore, she was worried about their minds.

If both Ianto and Barty had seen something, it stood to reason that she would see something, too. The question then became, what, exactly would she see? What was she most likely to imagine at this exact moment in her life? The question was easily answered. Toshiko, Owen or Rhys. No one, or anything, else. Those three people remained the only possibilities. Therefore, she could logically assume that if she saw them, they obviously wouldn't be real.

They would just be a figment of her imagination.

A nice figment, perhaps, but still a made up character in the story of her recent life. It would hurt, to see Tosh or Owen standing there and tell them they weren't real, but it didn't matter. If she knew what was coming, then she would know what to do when the moment arose that she needed to do it. It wasn't much by way of comfort, but it was something nonetheless. She had something to cling to, something to use when the shit hit the fan. She knew it would, and soon, if Ianto had been any indication. She could only guess when her own hallucination chose to strike.

Hopefully, it wouldn't happen at all, but some how, she doubted that. Since joining Torchwood, the weird stuff rarely left her alone. In fact, she seemed to draw far more of its attention than everyone else, with the possible acceptation of Jack. The man was a trouble magnet, plain and simple. Of course, he could afford to be, the man was bloody invincible after all. It hardly seemed fair to Gwen that he had to be the one to live on and none of them could ever hope to gain that privilege. They were mortal, and as such, they would die.

"We're here—here, there." Barty said, coming to stop in an odd-shaped room.

Gwen frowned, eyes scanning the room. It had six perfectly even sides and the walls came together at the exact same angle. It was a congruent hexagon near as she could recall from her high school geometry lessons. In the middle of the oddly shaped room was a well. It looked stagnant upon first blush, but when she squinted, Gwen could make out strange swirling patterns in the water, as if something was stirring it from underneath. The sight was eerie and made her skin crawl uncomfortably.

"See? Here, here, _here_." Barty's speech was stilted as he took deep breaths after each word.

"Yes, I can see that, Barty, thank you." Gwen acknowledged him, hoping to keep the nutty boy quiet for as long as possible.

"Oh, but there's more," Barty suddenly said, sounding strangely lucid. He ran over to a wall, skidding to a stop beside it. He withdrew a Zippo lighter from his cargo pocket and lit it, holding it up to the wall until a patch of fluorescent purple fungus caught on fire.

What the fire revealed was stunning.

Carved intricately into the walls was a story, a gruesome story, but still a story nonetheless. It was then that Gwen remembered what she had been trying to since she'd fallen into the maze. The story of the Minotaur. It was beautifully etched into the stone walls of this room in the maze. Her jaw dropped as she stared at it, awed by the simple majesty it presented, lit by the fire from the burning purple fungus, which seemed to be releasing an oddly purple tinted smoke.

"Theseus and the Minotaur," Ianto said with awe. "I know where we are, Gwen, and suddenly, I don't think it's a good thing, at all."

"The Minotaur," Gwen started slowly, the beginnings of fear starting to simmer in her stomach, "wasn't that a nasty monster with the lower body of a bull and the upper body and face of a horridly deformed man? Do you think it's in here?"

"It gets worse." Ianto answered her, voice solemn. "King Minos of Crete sent seven boys and seven girls into the maze each year as a sacrifice to the Minotaur, to keep it appeased. If the bubble has a set of requirements, like Jack said, than there's ten other people in here with us, counting Jack and Barty."

"This doesn't make any sense, though." Gwen protested, now grasping at straws. "We aren't in Crete, we're in Cardiff. Well, under Cardiff, but still Cardiff."

"No, Gwen, we aren't." Ianto informed her, voice disturbingly level. "The Minotaur and Deadalus' labyrinth were just a myth and I think we've just found the basis of that myth. Only this time, we aren't Theseus and there's no Adrianne waiting in the wings to rescue us if we get lost. We're on our own in an alien structure with a monster at its heart, or for all we know, roaming its halls."

"It roams." Barty hissed, eyes wild. He sneered insanely. "It roams, I've seen it. Eyes of pale yellow death, twisted obsidian horns and putrid sulfur breath. Snow white lower half, with knees that bend the wrong way. Grotesque face, not a mask, with rotting, hideous teeth to match. It ate Michelle, I saw it. Poor, poor Michelle. All gone. Gobbled up by the nasty beastie."

Gwen swallowed hard, a feeling of fear firmly lodging itself in her mind and body. Her limbs felt almost paralyzed to the spot. They were stuck in a maze with a Minotaur. Swell. "Ianto, I think we should go."

"Where?" Ianto whispered back, just as frightened as she was. What she wouldn't give for Jack to just come rushing into the room right about now.

"I dunno, anywhere but here, so long as it's without Barty." Gwen said shakily, forcing the words out of her dry mouth.

"Oh, come on now, Gwen, don't tell me a bleedin' heart like you would leave the poor kid all alone?" a hauntingly familiar voice said from Gwen's right.

She spun around, only to come face to face with a dead man. Only, this time, Owen seemed to be showing the signs of his untimely demise. His flesh was scorched and pocked, some of it black and oozing and other parts of it just melted away to reveal bone and muscle underneath. Gwen gasped, hand coming up to her mouth to keep herself from losing her lunch all over the slimy, damp floor. She swallowed hard, trying not to breathe in through her nose, less she catch a whiff of the stench that was no doubt wafting off of Owen and into the misty air.

"Owen?" she breathed, hardly believing her senses, even though her mind told her he was standing right there. "Is that you?"

"Who the hell else would it bloody be, Gwen?" Owen asked rhetorically, smirking nastily as he spoke. "The buggerin' Grim Reaper? Oh, wait, met him. Wasn't all that scary after all. Not as scary as you, anyway."

"What? Owen? What are you talking about? What's happened to you? Why are you here?" Gwen demanded, completely oblivious of Ianto's concerned look.

"Why do you soddin' think I'm here, Gwen? I mean, honestly! I'm dead! The only reason I would be here would be to give you a swift kick in the ass." Owen told her, his cheer coming off as disturbing due to his rotting, radiation sickness visage. He sneered. "Well, a swift killin' for lettin' me die, I should think. Honestly, woman, gettin' locked up in a bloody cell with that moron Hart? Of all the shit things you've done, that takes the fuckin' cake now, don't it?"

"What? Owen? I didn't do that on purpose!" Gwen exclaimed, frowning in confusion. As nasty as Owen could be at times, he'd never been quite like this. Something wasn't right. "You know that. Or, you would. What's going on?"

"Can't accept the truth then, Gwen?" Owen jeered, taking a threatening step towards Gwen. She stumbled back in fear. "Can't accept the fact that you let me die, that you stood around with your fingers in your ears and your head up your ass while I bloody _died_!"

He snarled and darted towards Gwen, black, rotting face now centimeters from hers. He sneered, and Gwen could smell his flesh dying. She wanted to hurl. "I _died_ because of you. What do you think of that? Huh? Huh? _What do you think of that_!"

"Gwen!" Suddenly, Ianto's suit clad arms reached through Owen's decayed chest and shook at her shoulders, shocking Gwen back into reality. "Gwen Cooper! Wake up and get a grip! It isn't real!"

"I know it isn't bloody real!" Gwen snapped angrily, desperately. She roughly batted Ianto's arms away. She turned on him, spitting fire. "I know it wasn't real, but it might as well have been! I let him die. I _let_ them both die! I could have done something but I-"

"You couldn't have!" Ianto interrupted, the agony in his eyes resonating deep within Gwen's soul. "None of us could. And that's the whole point, you see, because we're Torchwood and we're supposed to do the impossible, yet we couldn't fix this. That's what's wrong, Gwen. That! Nothing else, nothing more, nothing less."

"I know, I know." Gwen choked out, eyes brimming with tears. She reached up with her left hand and swiped at them angrily. "I know that's what's wrong. We're alive and they aren't and there isn't a damn thing we could have done to save them. Not one bloody thing! Why? Why can't there be something, Ianto?"

"Because the universe doesn't work that way," he told her sadly, green eyes imploring her to listen to reason. "Nothing does."

"No, it doesn't, does it?" Gwen asked rhetorically, wiping the last of her tears from her face. She drew in a shaky breath and crossed her arms over her chest. "What was that? What just happened to me, Ianto?"

"You were hallucinating." Ianto told her evenly, wresting back control over his own emotions.

"But, I'm not the only one." Gwen said, mind latching onto the puzzle. "You saw Lisa, Barty saw ghosts. Why would we all see something that isn't real within hours of each other? What is the common factor—besides being stuck in this maze—that links all of us? What could possibly be causing this?"

Ianto sighed and turned around, eyes focusing on the breathtaking wall carving. He frowned, mind picking out a part of the story that wasn't in any version he had ever heard before. The writing below the picture was in Greek, or what looked like Greek, so he was left to interpret the picture. A man with wings held a jar, obviously Deadalus the builder of the maze. The jar was open and from the mouth of it, a cloud seemed to drift out and swirl over an etching of the labyrinth. Ianto frowned. That was it. The common factor.

"It's the mist," he said slowly, realization dawning. "It's making us hallucinate. Whatever it is, it has hallucinogenic properties. It's making us see things that aren't there. You saw Owen, correct? I saw Lisa. Another common element, things we both regret deeply. What if that's it? What if this mist tenderizes us before the Minotaur finds us and kills us? What if this mist damages our minds so badly that we can no longer think clearly enough to find the way out?"

"That's…" Gwen started after a long, uncomfortable pause. "That's frightening, Ianto. That's very, very frightening."

"How can we get out?" Barty asked, drawing their attention back to the young man. "If it confuses us, how do we get out? It's everywhere. _Everywhere_! Don't you see? Don't you _see_?"

"Yes, Barty," Ianto said slowly, "I see."

TWL

"Oh, my feet are bleeding killing me!" Amy moaned, hopping on one foot to rub the other one, before switching, then standing up right. She sighed. "No matter though, have to keep on walking, otherwise we'll be stuck. Are you sure you're alright?"

Jack snapped out of the melancholy daze he appeared to have slipped into and regarded Amy as if he had just noticed he'd been following her around for the better part of two hours. He frowned; face showing his confusion at her question, as if she had spoken in a different language he didn't understand, or something equally as odd. He sighed suddenly, coming to a stop to stand next to her.

"I'm fine, Amy," Jack answered tiredly, running a brisk hand through his hair. He sighed again, chest moving noticeably with the action. "I'm just feeling off. Nothing to worry about."

"Uh huh, right." Amy said disbelievingly. She narrowed her eyes in reproach at Jack. "That last vision got to you, didn't it? They get to me too, though I haven't seen anything for a while. Must be you. I don't feel so scared with someone stuck with me. Bitching at real people makes me feel better."

Jack gave a soft laugh, but his heart really wasn't in it. She was right. He was still reeling from what he had heard and seen. He couldn't imagine the Doctor saying that. No, he'd take that back, he could, but only in his darkest, creepiest nightmares. Only when he was alone and the horrors of his long life came back to haunt him in surround sound Technicolor. The Doctor only said that to him on dark, dreary nights when too many had died and it was all his fault and out of his control. Just like London and the nano-genes had been. Mostly. He could have chosen not to crash that Chula ship, but he hadn't.

He could have chosen not to kill all of those people in the name of the Agency, but he hadn't. He hadn't been lying to his team when he'd said he'd been a different man back then. He'd been different, very different. He'd been a cold blooded assassin, had lured many a mark to their death with the promise of hot sex and sweet violence. Oh, how well that had turned out. It hadn't, not really. Nothing about that had turned out for the good, no matter what he'd thought at the time. Killing in cold blood never turned out good.

"You're brooding again." Amy swiftly derailed his depressing train of thought. She smiled softly at Harkness. "C'mon Captain, we need to keep moving, who knows what could possibly-"

Amy didn't have a chance to finish her statement. That was when it struck, plowing into her like a semi into a child's toy wagon.

Amy screamed, the sound drowned out by the blood curdling snarl the horned creature issued from its rotting mouth as it downed her. Jack stumbled backwards in shock, eyes locked onto the creature and limbs frozen in pure terror. He watched with wide blue eyes as ebony clawed hands tore into Amy's throat and upper chest, nearly detaching her head from her body in one fell swoop. Jack gasped, tripping over himself as he shuffled backward, only intent on escaping and leaving the instantly dead girl in the clutches of the horrid monster.

He turned and ran feet and legs moving so fast he was barely able to keep himself upright as he sprinted frantically away. He tripped, flying at an impossible clip through the air before viciously slamming into the rough stone of the floor. He scrambled to his feet, immortal heart beating out a break-dance meter against his sternum. His chest heaved so harshly that it was hard for him to breathe, never mind the mist.

He pelted down the passageway as fast as his nearly numb legs would carry him. He skid around a sharp corner, impacting the wall violently on the other side but completely disregarding the pain, adrenaline pumping overtime through his veins. He pushed away from the wall, once again running full tilt down a perfectly straight hallway. He tore around another corner, this time managing to avoid hitting the wall.

He pumped his arms and legs for all he was worth, terror giving him a speed he'd never even knew existed before this moment. He turned another corner, mind in over drive and surroundings blurring until all he could see was what was directly in front of him. He skidded to a stop through an open doorway, panting harshly as he ducked behind the wall of the strangely shaped room. He stood there, leaning against the wall and eyes clenched shut, chest heaving and heart feeling like it was going to explode out of his chest in a gruesome shower of gore.

It was then he realized he wasn't alone.

He eyes flew open and he jumped when he saw a face inches from his. Jack swung out blindly; reacting to what he thought was a threat. He heard a muted thump, followed by an exclamation of pain. It had sounded like a person. Yanking his mind ruthlessly under control, Jack took in steady breaths and really _looked_ at just where he had ended up. It was a six sided room with a well in the middle and Ianto glaring at him from under his brow. Jack felt his face split into a grin.

"Ianto!" He grabbed the other man and pulled him into a strong, almost painful, hug. He let go and planted a quick kiss on the stunned man, before holding him at arms length, hands on Ianto's shoulders. "You're alive! You're okay! What the hell is going on?"

"Am I hallucinating?" Ianto asked slowly, clearly not believing his eyes.

"Unless we're all seeing the same thing," Gwen said carefully, "no, Ianto you aren't. Jack, where the _hell_ have you been?"

"Running," Jack gasped out, still getting his breath back. He shook his head, fear coming back at the mere memory of the creature. "You wouldn't believe what I saw, Gwen. It was the nastiest, most frightening thing I've come across."

"Let me guess," Ianto interrupted. He pointed to the carving on the wall, specifically, to the Minotaur, "it looked something like that?"

"Damn," Jack breathed, walking closer to the wall. He stood there, peering at the carving for a long moment. "King Minos and the Minotaur. Of all of the things that could have happened to us, I wouldn't have thought of that. What's that mist that Deadalus has there?"

"The mist in the air," Gwen reported dutifully. "It's causing us to hallucinate, Jack. We've all seen something. It seems to show us the things we most regret in the most painful way possible."

"Oh," Jack said softly. He stepped away from the carving. "That's what happened to me and Amy, then."

"Amy?" Ianto asked curiously. "Who's she?"

"The Minotaur killed her." Jack answered, voice cold. He swallowed hard, fighting back his emotions. "It just _killed _her. There was nothing I could do. It jumped on her, tore out her throat, and I just ran."

"You brought it _here_?" Barty shrieked, drawing Jack's attention to him for the first time. "You led it _here_? How could you? Why could you? Why would you? _What have you done_?"

"Oh, shit," Gwen cursed, lacking anything else to say. She drew her gun and leveled it at the doorway. "Assuming it's killed everyone else, we're next on the menu."

"Yeah," Ianto drew his gun and aimed it at the same place as Gwen, "we are."

"Dammit!" Jack exclaimed, drawing his Webely. He cocked the hammer and aimed it at the empty door. "I dare it to come here. I just _dare_ it."

A loud rumbling, cracking, scraping sound echoed down the hallway. Jack, Gwen, Ianto and poor defenseless Barty flinched. Jack swallowed hard, shifting his stance and adjusting his grip on his pistol. Right now, he'd never wished more for a clip of ammo in his entire life. Six shots wouldn't be enough to bring down that beast, even if all of them miraculously managed to impact their intended target. They'd either somehow manage to ward it off or go down fighting. Jack preferred killing it then and there, but he knew that wasn't an option. Something else was at work here, besides the Minotaur, and they needed to figure out what it was in order to go home.

A heart-freezing howl echoed down the corridor and bounced mockingly around in their skulls.

Jack sucked in an involuntary breath, hands tightening around his gun. He felt like he was holding a plastic water pistol. That's about all the good his gun was going to be anyway. Boxing his fear, Jack fed off the adrenaline rushing through his system and focused harder on the doorway. It was the only way the creature was able to get in and it wasn't going to get any farther than that if he had anything to say about it. A loud grinding sound echoed, followed by the sound of overly loud breathing.

Jack swallowed hard.

His fingers tightened even more around the butt of his gun.

A growl pierced their ears, shattering the tense silence and making everyone wince. It was then that the creature leapt through the doorway, face set in a vicious snarl and eyes positively _glaring_. It stood on all fours for a split second, before diving nearly faster than the eye could see at Ianto. Jack pulled the trigger. The bullet impacted the creature's left shoulder and it suddenly lost its momentum, stumbling sideways into the wall instead of diving head first onto Ianto.

Jack pulled the trigger again, stepping forward and holding his gun impossibly level. The bulled pierced the creature's chest, causing it to howl hauntingly in pain. Jack felt no sympathy. He pulled the trigger again, but this time, the bullet harmlessly impacted the wall as the creature fled, back out of the door it had come in. Gwen and Ianto stood there, both of them rooted to the spot in shock. Jack had had a hard time believing his own eyes the first time had seen the creature, now he found himself strangely numb. He slowly put his gun away, barely aware of his motions.

He'd just shot the alien basis of a famous Greek myth.

He felt empty, hollow, and strangely let down. If it was just a myth, that meant that Theseus really hadn't killed the Minotaur, that much was obvious. The question suddenly became who played the role of King Minos in all of this madness, and why had the mist been left out of the original legend but inscribed here, in this room, on the walls? There were too many pieces missing, but once again, Jack found himself lacking the archeological skills to translate and decode this entire mystery. He didn't know what had really happened and he couldn't read the alien version of Greek to find out.

He was sure what they needed to know was written on that wall. The only problem was, none of them could read it.

"Everyone okay?" Jack asked slowly, gathering enough of his composure to finally ask. His ears were still ringing from the sound of gunshots in a closed space.

"Yeah—yes," Gwen managed to force out around her shock. She took in a deep breath to steady her frazzled nerves. "Was—was that the—the Minotaur, Jack?"

"Yeah," Jack answered simply, wandering over to Ianto. He shook the younger man's shoulder gently. "Ianto? You okay?"

"I'm alright, Jack." Ianto answered, fear induced fog clearing from his mind. He wasn't like the rest of them, he hadn't seen as many of the nasty things up close and personal. This was the worst thing he'd come across to date. "It was just a bit—shocking, I suppose."

"Fair enough," Jack acknowledged. He patted Ianto on the shoulder then moved over to Barty, who was curled up on the floor, knees pulled as tightly to his chest as the young man could manage. He was leaning against the well and shaking, eyes clenched shut.

"Barty, right?" Jack asked softly as he crouched on the floor in front of the poor boy. "Barty, are you alright? Are you hurt?"

"It's back-it's back-back-back-_back_!" Barty's voice was barely intelligible and he sounded strangled, as if his throat had been ripped raw and he'd suddenly acquired laryngitis all at once.

"Damn," Jack whistled lowly, not wanting to startle Barty. He pushed to his feet, eyes showing his pity for the man huddled on the floor. "He's gone. There's nothing we can do for him, his mind just…snapped."

"We can't just leave him here, Jack." Gwen protested, crossing her arms over her chest indignantly. "That _thing_ will kill him if we do."

"I know that, Gwen." Jack barely restrained himself from snapping. He sighed and put his hand to his chin for a moment, before dropping it. "It's just—how are we gonna get him to go anywhere? The boy barely even knows where he is."

"Lost-lost-lost-lost-_lost_!" Barty hissed, rocking back and forth on the floor, his back painfully smacking into the rough stone of the well. "It'll kill me! _It_ will. I know. I know. I _know_! Barty knows, Barty always knows. Greeks put us here to die, but not the Greeks, no, no, _no_! Something else—something _else_ trapped us here. Trapped, trapped, trapped. Aliens, monsters. Trapped, trapped, _trapped_!"

"Barty, who trapped us?" Jack knelt down in front of the boy, interest renewed. He put his hand on Barty's knee, attempting to comfort, only to jump back with a shout when the boy snarled and swiped brutally at Jack's hand.

"Hey!" Jack exclaimed, affronted. He took in a deep breath and moved back in front of Barty, this time keeping his hands to himself. "I'm trying to help you! Now, Barty, who trapped us here? Do you know?"

"I catalogue, read it." Barty said, eyes shifting about crazily. "Archeologist's assistant. Barty does good. Good student. Bad things don't happen to good students! I read it, the letters. Such pretty letters. Deadalus didn't belong, didn't. Came from somewhere else, trapped _it_ here! His fault, _his_! His blue box, we're stuck! He built it, Deadalus is _wrong_!"

"Blue box?" Jack felt his blood run cold and his breath freeze in his lungs. It couldn't be. It just _couldn't_. "What do you mean 'blue box'? What blue box? What blue box, Barty?"

"Blue box," Barty rasped, eyes closing then opening wider than normal. "The blue box. It holds the key. Find the blue box, find Deadalus. Solve it!"

"Solve what? Barty!" Jack grabbed the young man's shoulders and shook him harshly.

Barty's eyes rolled back in his head suddenly and he began to convulse, body jerking and bending as if he was being electrocuted. Jack grabbed him harder, trying to keep the boy from hurting himself, but it was no use. Barty's head met the solid rock of the well with a sickening crunch, and all of his movement stopped. Jack swallowed hard, prying his hands from their white knuckled grip on Barty's shoulders. He checked the boy's pulse, sighing in regret when he didn't find one. Just as well, he thought sullenly, the poor boy was out of his head, this was mercy.

"Oh my god!" Gwen exclaimed, rushing over to Jack and Barty. She crouched down next to the boy, checking his pulse and frowning when she didn't find one. She turned her wide hazel eyes onto Jack. "Did he just have a seizure?"

"Yeah," Jack breathed out, pushing to his feet. He dusted his hands and turned towards Ianto, a determined look on his face. "According to Barty, Deadalus is still here, imprisoned within the maze. He obviously didn't fly away like the myth says. We need to go and find him."

"Are you sure that's wise, Jack?" Ianto asked, alarmed. He didn't want to wander around half-dark corridors with a mist that makes you crazy and a man-eating alien. "That thing is still out there, not to mention the mist. Are we sure leaving this room is the wisest course of action?"

"You'd rather stay here and die?" Jack scoffed, shifting his weight. "I want to know what that 'blue box' is, Ianto. Mist or no mist, I'm going to find out. You can stay here if you like."

"You think it's the Doctor?" Ianto asked, disbelief dripping from his words. "It's not, Jack. Why would he create something like this? Admittedly, the way Torchwood paints him, this seems like his sort of project, but from what you've told me about him, it doesn't make sense at all. Besides which, Deadalus built the maze and Deadalus is still here. It can't be the Doctor."

"The person he built this for would not have known he could escape." Jack answered tersely. He saw Gwen stand up and away from Barty's body out of the corner of his eye. "Whatever it is that he locked here, it must have been for a damn good reason. I want to know why."

"Fine, Jack," Gwen interrupted before Ianto could continue the argument. She gave them both a stern look. "Perhaps it was the Doctor, but right now, that's neither here nor there. Jack's right, Ianto, we need to leave this room if we ever want to go home. Disturbing monster not withstanding."

Ianto sighed, relenting. "Alright," he squared his shoulders then drew his gun, "let's go, then."

Jack nodded, choosing to leave his own gun where it was. He stepped up to the doorway, carefully peering into the hallway before stepping fully into it. Gwen and Ianto slowly followed behind him. "Okay," he said on a breath, "we're in a labyrinth. It's not an endless maze of corridors, it has a set ending and a set beginning and there's only one path. It just takes forever."

"This one is different, though, Jack." Ianto observed, understanding what Jack was saying. "It's a maze in places, as if you have to pass through the correct corridors to get to the next step of the labyrinth. We need to find the correct path to get to Deadalus; otherwise, we'll die of starvation or dehydration."

"True." Jack acknowledged, mind working faster behind his eyes than Ianto had ever seen it.

Jack frowned, eyes sweeping the passageway carefully, looking for something—anything—that would lead him in the correct direction. He needed to make it quick, though, as the longer they stayed in one place the easier it was for the Minotaur to find them again. The purple fungus on the wall pulsed slightly, the eerie glow it cast on the stone passage unchanging as always. The mist swirled and merged around his head and ankles at once, pushing into his lungs then back out. He could feel the tug of it on the back of his mind and fought it. He needed to remain lucid for as long as possible.

The hallway was just as plain as any other hallway, the same strange wet on each stone and the same purple fungus at the ceiling. Jack let out a frustrated breath and shifted his weight, his right foot hurting from standing still for too long. There was nothing in this hallway. No arrows, no marking, no obvious—or not so obvious—clues. He couldn't think of anything. The only strange thing was the wet, which trailed along the walls almost haphazardly. Wait a minute, Jack thought, excitement rising inside of him, it's the water!

"It's the water!" Jack suddenly exclaimed, startling Ianto and Gwen. He ran over to the wall and peered at it. He smirked and pressed a series of buttons on his Vortex Manipulator. The water on the walls suddenly shined an even blue, the line running along the walls in a strange series of arrows.

"That's it!" Jack grinned. "Deadalus didn't want anyone else trapped down here with him, so he put this here! This stuff oughta lead us just where we need to go. C'mon!"

"Jack, that's brilliant!" Gwen smiled at him.

"What did you do?" Ianto asked, curious. He walked next to Jack, gun held ready. He didn't fancy a gruesome death-by-Minotaur.

"It's a bioluminescent bacteria in the water," Jack began to explain, "it only reacts to a certain frequency of sound, strangely, I just used my manipulator to broadcast the signal one hundred feet in front and behind us. Well, more in a circle, actually."

"Why sound?" Gwen inquired. "Don't those sorts of things react to chemicals?"

"On Earth, maybe," Jack responded, "but these are from a different planet, they need the extra energy the sound waves provide to glow."

"Ah, because sound _is_ energy," Gwen said, understanding dawning. She frowned. "Must be a very high frequency, I can't hear it."

"No, you wouldn't. A dog couldn't. I needed a high frequency sound, meaning, I needed short wavelength sound. The shorter the wave length, the higher the energy and the higher the frequency." Jack explained quickly, already walking down the hallway. Gwen and Ianto jogged to catch up.

"Sound sensitive bacteria," Ianto marveled, trying not to stare openmouthed at the walls.

"Pretty neat, huh?" Jack tossed over his shoulder with a quick grin.

He seemed to be back to his old self all of the sudden. Ianto wondered what had happened in the space of five minutes to change him. The only thing he could think of was a mention of the Doctor. It made Ianto wonder what would happen when Jack realized the Doctor wasn't anywhere near there and was most likely out gallivanting about time and space. The Time Lord wasn't imprisoned in a primitive maze like this. Was he? The question gave Ianto pause. If the Doctor were stuck here, what did that say about them? How were they going to get out of this dark, damp, dreary hell?

Ianto preferred not to think about that.

He wanted to leave this place as fast as humanly possible, he didn't want to be stuck or entertain any sort of theory that had them trapped in the labyrinth. Deadalus was a mad man for having built this place, no matter the reason. They could have just killed the Minotaur after all, instead of locking it up in a ruthless maze. It hardly made sense. Of course, if he wanted evidence for the Doctor's involvement, this was it. From what Jack had told him, the Time Lord didn't like killing things and would often go out of his way to make sure he didn't have to. Enter the maze, Ianto thought bitterly. Of course the Doctor hadn't wanted to kill it so he'd locked the damn thing up in here.

Although, the Doctor wasn't fond of kidnapping, either. The bubble must have been added on later by someone else, perhaps the other parent of the Minotaur. Minos' wife didn't do it alone, Ianto knew. Perhaps whatever alien she had slept with came back and added the bubble. It would make sense. Perhaps the alien _was_ King Minos, and his human visage was only a disguise. That was the more likely notion, as the aliens tended to utilize that sort of disguise nine times out of ten. It was how they found most of them, anyway. All of the odd human beings who just didn't quite _fit_ were always the ones they looked at first in Torchwood.

Most of this didn't make sense and Ianto longed for it to. He just wanted to leave, that was all. Just leave and go back to his grief. It was better than this, always would be. Just back to his grief, without Owen, without—

"Tosh!" Ianto yelped, heart stopping in his surprise. He pulled in a startled breath, eyes round as he stared at Toshiko.

Something wasn't right with her.

Her right arm from the elbow down resembled the sleeper arm Beth had sprouted after they had dug into the poor woman's mind. It was different, though, there were no alien organics attached. No, this was perfect, sleek, shining metal, like the second Terminator from the old movie Ianto had managed to catch a few minutes of. The sharp arm was shining dully in the passageway. Not because of the poor lighting, no, it was coated in something. Something red, sticky, and dripping. Ianto imagined he could see a piece of intestine just along the far side of the weapon, slowly sliding in a stomach curdling trail to the floor.

He wanted to hurl.

Toshiko grinned, the move eerie and empty, her eyes red and flat. She blinked, slowly, tilting her head, smiling around bloody teeth. Ianto could see a bright, vivid stain on her cream colored shirt where she had been shot by Grey. She was dead, he knew, standing there. She was the walking dead retrieved from his nightmares and sent there to kill him with sorrow. He swallowed thickly, not even bothering to fight the tears that had begun to prick and sting at his eyes. He deserved this, to see her here. Every. Single. Second.

"Hello, Ianto," Tosh greeted, her normal, cheery voice completely at odds with how she appeared right now. She raised the shining knife arm in greeting, and Ianto gagged as the piece of intestine slid to the floor with a wet pop. "Is everything alright?"

"Is everything alright?" Ianto managed to force his voice to work, but he was sure he words sounded more like an inarticulate squeak. He was drowning and had no idea how to save himself. "Tosh-Tosh, how can-can-can seeing you like this be-be _alright_? Look at you!"

"Look at me?" She parroted, eyes still unnervingly empty as she titled her head to the side. She glanced down at herself, and suddenly, Ianto saw her eyes fill. With horror. Her head snapped up quickly and she stared openmouthed at Ianto.

"You killed me!" She accused harshly, eyes flashing with hate and condemnation. "You killed me, Ianto! How could you? _How could you_?"

"I didn't kill you! It wasn't my fault!" Ianto argued desperately, tears spilling out of his eyes unnoticed. "It wasn't—it wasn't my fault, Tosh. It was Grey! He shot you! It wasn't me; I swear to God that it wasn't me. Please, please, don't look at me like that, it wasn't my fault!"

"Oh, but you see," Tosh told him menacingly, voice dripping venom. She stalked forward, her sword-like arm swinging disturbingly as she moved. Ianto could see little drops of blood fly off and splatter on her pants and the floor. "You did kill me, Ianto. Just like you killed Lisa, just like you wanted to kill Jack. Who's next, Gwen? How many people do you have to kill until they'll lock you up? That's what you want, isn't it? To be locked away with me for all eternity, suffering _horribly_ for your sins? Isn't that right, Ianto? Isn't it? _Isn't it_?"

"No," Ianto whimpered, retreating until his back met the wall, "no, no please, it's not what I want. No!"

"You don't have a choice!" Tosh yelled. She dived forward, weapon arm out stretched. It passed through Ianto's stomach and he screamed, pain flaring through his nerves.

Suddenly, it was gone and everything was quiet.

Ianto gasped, panting breaths overly loud in his ears. His eyes were wild as he looked from Jack to Gwen to the air. He swallowed, chest heaving and heart protesting against the surge of pure terror that he had felt the moment Tosh had dived towards him. He couldn't remember ever being that scared before in his life. His frightened green eyes locked onto Jack, searching for comfort that he desperately hoped would be there this time. It had been missing every time before.

"Ianto?" Jack asked softly, gently placing a hand on Ianto's left shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"No," Ianto whispered. He shook his head slowly. "No, Jack. I'm not okay. How could I possibly be okay after that?"

Jack pulled him away from the wall and hugged him tight, as if trying to transmit what little emotional strength he had into Ianto. He could suddenly understand why Barty had been driven mad so quickly. Little water, little sleep, and this thrice damned mist could drive any man insane in two days or less. It was a miracle Barty had lasted that long at all. Jack squeezed Ianto tighter, pulling the younger man as close to him as he could. Ianto felt warm and solid in his arms and it was enough to drive away his demons, just for the moment. Slowly, he pulled back, giving Ianto as encouraging a smile as he could muster before taking the younger man's hand and turning to Gwen.

He began to walk, tugging Ianto behind him. "C'mon, we need to find the way out of here. We aren't gonna be able to think clearly for much longer."

"I'll second that." Gwen opined, voice shaking. She looked just as shaken up over Ianto's episode as Ianto himself. "If we don't get out of here soon, I'll go batty."

"It may not matter." Ianto said suddenly, voice strangely clear. His eyes were red and puffy and the dirt on his face was smeared from his tears. "The Minotaur may get us before we even get close to getting out of here."

"That's such a cheery thought," Jack remarked sarcastically. His hand tightened around Ianto's for a moment. "We'll get outta here if it's the last coherent thing I do, Ianto, I swear it."

* * *

That's it for number three! Review!


	4. All Said, That Could Have Been Worse

Right, okay then. This is the last chapter to the Labyrinth. Thank you one and all for reading this little bit of fiction. And please, remember to drop me a note saying if you liked it or not.

* * *

TWL

They'd been walking around for hours, following the blue line along the walls. The novelty of strange glowing blue bacteria had worn off pretty quickly. A bright bioluminescent glow out of the corner of your eye tended to annoy. Jack scrubbed tiredly at his eyes, trying to stop them from watering. He'd been staring at the glow, and the strange hum of the sound waves creating it were starting to give him a headache. Just because he couldn't hear them didn't mean he couldn't feel them. They resonated in is head, bouncing against his brain and reverberating against his skull.

Jack sighed and dropped his hand, finished with trying to make his eyes cooperate with him. If they kept on watering, so be it. He hadn't had another hallucination yet, but he'd seen things, flashes, and heard sounds, like words, but not really. He couldn't distinguish them from the background, but he was fairly certain it wasn't the Minotaur. He didn't know what species of alien had crossed with a human, but that wasn't really the point. It didn't matter what sort of alien it was, only that the Doctor had locked it in there, and them indirectly along with it.

He couldn't imagine why the Doctor would do something like this, but what Barty had said made Jack believe the Doctor was the only option. Besides which, the design of the place fit him as well, and the hidden clue that led to the only way out. The Minotaur wouldn't be able to light the walls, were as, someone able to think would be able to solve the puzzle, with the correct technology. That didn't line up, however. The Doctor would have created a way for anyone to get out should they choose to use their minds.

For some reason, he wanted to believe it was the Doctor.

He wanted to think it was the Doctor, wanted to believe the Time Lord had created this place and stranded them here. He didn't know why he thought that, perhaps it was because he had two thousand years to think about the man while buried under the earth. The man who had never shown up, who had never known anything was wrong with the universe when the one _universal fact_ had crossed his own timeline. Time Lords were supposed to know that sort of thing, weren't they? So, why hadn't the Doctor shown up, why hadn't he saved them?

Why hadn't the Doctor saved him?

It didn't matter now, not really. He only wanted to believe the Doctor had locked them here, if only because that meant he might realize something was amiss and swoop in and save them at the last second. He knew, logically, that the Doctor had nothing to do with the situation and wasn't going to save them. He knew it, knew it wouldn't happen, but that didn't stop him from wishing, hoping, and praying for a rescue. He didn't think he could save them. He didn't know how. It seemed impossible from where he was standing now, but that didn't matter, he had to be strong for Gwen and Ianto, they'd had enough of his weakness in the face of their grief as it was. He couldn't add any more to it, didn't want to.

"Jack?" Gwen interrupted his thoughts. She pointed straight ahead and Jack stopped dead when he saw a shadow cross their path about a hundred yards in front of them. "What was that?"

"I don't know." Jack said softly. He drew his gun and saw Ianto mirror his action. "C'mon, let's go see what it was."

"You want to go _closer_ to it?" Ianto demanded tightly following closely after Jack.

"You're following me, aren't you?" Jack asked smartly, eyes focused on the empty space where the shadow used to be.

"Yes, unfortunately," Ianto muttered disingenuously under his breath.

"Oh, cheer up, Ianto," Gwen said, gun also held at the ready. "At least we can be sure it isn't the Minotaur, that shape looked like a man."

"In our job, just because it _looks_ human does not mean it's even remotely similar." Ianto told her snappishly, nerves balancing precariously on a torn tether.

"True," Gwen acknowledged, now sounding distinctly nervous. Ianto almost regretted saying anything. Almost.

"No need to get nasty." Jack reprimanded absently, mind focused on figuring out exactly what had darted across their path. Gwen was right, it was most likely another trapped college kid, but that didn't stop him from being careful.

They crept up on the corner, each one of them praying that something nasty was not on the other side. With the way their luck had been running lately, though, Jack was sure something was going to kill them the moment they got close. Bummer for him, tragic for Gwen and Ianto. He'd live though, just like always. He didn't have a choice. Forcing his deep philosophical thoughts to the back of his mind, Jack gripped his gun tighter and pressed his back flat against the wall.

He peered cautiously around the corner, barely putting his head out far enough to see. The room was dark, but Jack could see a glowing blue line running along the wall that told him they would have to go that way to get out of the maze. Gathering his courage, Jack stepped slowly around the corner, gun leveled where any normal person's head or chest would be. No surprises for him this time. Once had been enough, thank you. When no one jumped out with a cry of promised pain, Jack relaxed a faction, his senses focusing on the dark.

He couldn't see anything out of the ordinary, for what it was worth at that moment. He crept forward slowly, noticing Gwen and Ianto following just in his peripheral vision. He inched forward, shuffling his feet incase what they had seen was lying on the floor instead of huddled fearfully against the wall. Whomever or whatever it was could have had a seizure just like Barty had. There was enough time to allow for it, Jack knew. He swallowed hard, reining in his nerves. He was starting to get impatiently scared. Looking around a dark room that was not empty but devoid of signs of life was enough to make anyone start to get nervous.

"Hello?" Jack called out, trying to sound friendly. "Is anyone in here? We saw you running. It's okay, we're not gonna hurt you."

"That's what you think," a hoarse voice said from Jack's left.

Jack yelped in surprise, gun swinging around to aim point blank at the person who had spoken. His chest heaved as he gulped in copious amounts of air, trying to fight the surge of adrenaline flooding his veins. His hands tightened around the gun and he barely stopped himself from pulling the trigger and shooting whoever it was that had scared him half to death.

"Who are you?" Jack demanded tightly.

"You think you aren't here to hurt, do you?" the voice was familiar and Jack felt a feeling of dread settle in his stomach. The voice laughed mockingly. "You'd be right. I'm the one who does the hurting. You know that, don't you, Freak?"

"Get. Out." Jack growled out around clenched teeth.

"Hello?" Another voice whimpered. It sounded distantly like a child to Jack's ears. He could hardly hear around the rush of blood pounding through his skull.

"Who are you?" Gwen called out softly, trying to locate the source of the voice. "Where are you, sweetie? We can't help if we can't find you."

"Over here!" the young voice shouted from the left corner.

"Over here!" the voice mocked. Jack's eyes bulged when the owner of the voice stepped into the blue glow coming from the bacteria on the wall. He noted it with a grudging bit of satisfaction. "Nice catch, Jackie boy. Wouldn't have thought _you'd_ notice my brilliant trail of bread crumbs. It's simply ingenious, don't you think?"

"You aren't here." Jack stated, his desperation bleeding into his voice. He swallowed hard and forced his anger and fear to the back of his mind. The mist preyed off of fear, he was coming to realize. "I know you aren't here. Leave. Now."

"You forgot to say 'please'," the man sneered, tapping a familiar gadget against his head in a sickening; tap, tap, tap, tap, pause, tap, tap, tap, tap.

"As if I would beg _you_ for anything," Jack snapped, eyes flashing dangerously. He leveled his gun at the man, venom in his voice tangible in the air. "I'll shoot you, hallucination or not. Damn the Doctor and his merciful tendencies to hell, Lucy was right in shooting you. If she hadn't, I would've, mark my words."

"Oh, and such brave ones they are," the man laughed, eyes sparkling with madness. He sneered again. "Say my name, Freak. Say it. C'mon, _say it_!"

"No!" Jack snarled. He swung, lashing out wildly at the apparition, not caring if it was a figment of his twisted mind or not.

The man vanished into the air like vapor, malicious laugh echoing in the dark chamber and freezing Jack's blood in his veins. He knew that laugh and no matter what he told himself, real, fake or imagined, that sound would always chill him to his core.

"Mister, are you alright?" a young, child-like voice interrupted Jack's racing thoughts.

He frowned down at the boy, who was no older than eleven. He was dirty, bruised, and looked like he hadn't eaten in days. The child was clutching Gwen's hand tightly as he looked up at Jack with bright blue eyes. His blond hair was matted to his forehead, but he was obviously putting on a brave face. He must have been snatched from his family while they were picnicking in Bute Park, he looked far too young to have gotten there on his own, Jack noticed.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Jack told the boy with a smile. He crouched down in front of the child. "What's your name, kid?"

"Ryan," the boy answered, arm wrapped around his middle. His jeans were torn at the knees and Jack once again marveled at the fact the boy was still alive. "What's yours?"

"Jack," Jack answered kindly. He gently ruffled Ryan's hair. "Were you with your parents before, Ryan?"

"Yeah," Ryan answered, looking homesick. He sighed and gave Jack a small sideways smile. "We were on a picnic. It was nice and sunny out. Then, I saw this bubble, I guess. It grabbed me, then it was cold and then I was here. There's a monster here. They don't live under your bed, do they? They live in this place, don't they, Jack?"

"Yeah, Ryan, they live here." Jack replied sadly. He pushed to his feet. "We'll get you outta here, Ryan. You have my word."

"Shake on it?" Ryan asked, smiling impishly. He held out his grubby hand and looked into Jack's eyes, as if seeing through the Captain.

Jack shook the boy's hand. "Deal."

"Deal," Ryan echoed. He dropped Jack's hand and his grin seemed to fall from his face. He frowned, looking at the walls as if noticing the blue glow for the first time. "Why's the wall glowing?"

"That's our way out," Jack told him, leading his team once more. He walked through a second doorway and out into yet another passageway.

"Have you ever heard the story of Hansel and Gretel?" Ianto asked Ryan, smiling at the boy.

"The blue light is bread crumbs?" Ryan said excitedly. "That's so cool! What is it, mister?"

"Ianto, my name is Ianto," Ianto told the boy with amusement. "The blue is bacteria," he leaned in conspiratorially, "it's from someplace in a galaxy far, far away."

"Really?" Ryan's eyes were positively glowing now. "It is? Which galaxy, where from? I was so right, aliens are real! No one believes me when I tell them I met one, well, that my Grandpa did. My Grandpa, Timothy Latimer, he met an alien, the Doctor; he gave Grandpa a watch that used to hold DNA! Isn't that neat? No one believes me when I tell them, even my Dad, but Grandpa gave me the watch before he died."

Ryan dug around in his pocket for a moment, letting go of Gwen's lax hand. They were all shocked by what the boy was saying. He pulled out a tarnished fob watch and showed it to Ianto. "See, look! It's got funny designs on it. Grandpa said; don't give it to anyone but my son or the Doctor. He told me to pass on the story, so I will."

"Ryan," Jack said slowly, "can I see the watch? I promise not to keep it, I just want to look. I think I've seen one just like it before."

"You have?" Ryan asked eyes wide. He carefully passed the watch to Jack. "When? Where?" the boy gasped, "Do you know the Doctor?"

Jack chuckled, turning the watch over in his hands a few times before passing it back to Ryan. It was definitely a chameleon watch. "Yeah, I know the Doctor. He and I are good friends. I traveled with him once, in his blue box, but then something bad happened and I got left behind."

"Did he come back for you?" Ryan asked innocently, once more pocketing the watch.

"No, he didn't," Jack answered honestly. He sighed. "But I found him again, a year ago. We did some amazing things. He asked me to stay, but I didn't. I wanted to come home."

"You did?" Ryan goggled. He smiled, mood considerably lightened by the conversation. "What's the Doctor like? Grandpa always said he was fire, ice, rage and peace all at once. Is he really?"

"He's the Oncoming Storm." Jack said with a smile. "The Lonely God. The one who'll save you when no one else will, the one who cares when no one else does," Jack chuckled, strangely honest for once. "He saved me, stopped me from committing a fatal accident. I can't thank him enough for that."

"Wow," Ryan breathed. He sighed, suddenly looking sad. "I miss my Mom."

"I know, kid," Jack commiserated. He ruffled Ryan's hair again. "You'll see her again, soon. Hopefully in the next few hours, maybe a day."

"Thank you," Ryan whispered. He slid his smaller hand into Jack's larger one. "Take me home, spaceman."

Jack laughed.

His joy was abruptly cut short as Gwen yelped and pointed at the end of the hallway. There, glowering and growling threateningly at them, was the Minotaur. Ryan screamed, voice high-pitched as he ducked behind Jack, clutching to the Captain's long coat. Jack aimed his gun at the creature, fighting to keep his hands from shaking. A long, disgusting string of salvia slid from the creature's mouth, falling lazily to the floor. The Minotaur's yellow eyes seemed to glow in the dim light, even from its spot twenty yards away. Jack could hardly believe they hadn't seen it sooner. He had the irrational notion that it was billowing black clouds of evil into the air, but that must have been the mist.

The glowing blue line on the right wall pointed straight towards the Minotaur. It was standing where they needed to be. Perhaps guarding it, even. The thought was disturbing and Jack refused to think about it. Instead, he pulled the trigger on his Webely. The sounded reverberated through the passageway as the bullet sped towards its target. The Minotaur roared and charged towards them just as Jack fired his weapon. The bullet hit home and the Minotaur howled the sound coming dangerously close to a squeal. Jack felt his heart rate pick up as the creature didn't even slow. The bullet might as well have gone right through it.

Jack fired again, hands sweating as fear began to take hold and cloud his mind. The bullet hit home, and this time, the bull-creature lost its footing, falling head first onto the stones and sliding right up to Jack. Harkness jumped back, stumbling over Ryan and the creature's arm as it clawed viciously at him. Jack kicked out wildly, boot connecting with the Minotaur's elbow joint with a satisfying crack. Jack leveled his gun point blank at the creature's head, and without even a thought, pulled the trigger one final time. The sound bounced painfully around the corridor and Jack watched in a detached state of shock as the creature's brain matter splattered.

Ryan screamed again, landing on the floor as he fell, hands bracing him as he went down. His eyes were wide as he scrambled backwards, away from the dead creature. The entire thing had happened in the space of three seconds, but to everyone involved, it had seemed like a long and tiring year. Ryan's chest heaved and he couldn't look away from the still twitching corpse of the Minotaur.

Jack shot it again, one more time for good measure, and the twitching stopped entirely. He lowered his gun and sheathed it, not minding nor noticing the black, vicious blood now decorating the front of his clothing. Throwing caution to the wind, Jack walked over and checked the creature, looking for a pulse or any other signs of life. Finding none, he relaxed, all of the previous tension bleeding out of him and making him feel empty and tired. He was so _sick_ of this insanity. He wanted to go home to his own bed, make one hell of a meal, then sleep for a week.

"Oh my god!" Gwen breathed, pulling in great gulps of air. Her hand was pressed to her chest as she was unable to look away from the morbid spectacle of the creature.

"Is that the only one?" Ianto voiced the question that had been lurking in the deep, dark recesses of everyone's minds.

"Yeah," Jack replied. "There was only one in the picture in the well room. I think we're safe. From this thing, anyway, not from ourselves."

"Why-why would we be a danger to ourselves?" Ryan asked timidly, climbing to his feet. He grabbed Jack's hand for comfort.

"The mist in the air," Jack answered him. "It shows you your deepest fears and what you most regret. It twists your mind, Ryan."

"I haven't seen anything." Ryan told him, sounding relieved. "Does that mean it doesn't hurt me?"

"I dunno," Jack told him truthfully. "I wish I did, Ryan, but I don't. If we start shouting at the air, you stay away, understand?"

"Yes," Ryan acknowledged quietly.

"Jack," Gwen started, finally wrestling back her composure, "we should keep moving. There's only so long we can stay here. We don't have any supplies."

"I know," Jack nodded, stepped over the Minotaur's carcass and led the way down the hallway. "Time to follow the light."

"So long as it's not in some random bog somewhere," Ianto muttered darkly under his breath.

"No, we wouldn't want that, would we?" Jack's head whipped around to stare at the source of the familiar voice. The man smiled charmingly at him, but his eyes were empty. "Gollum was right. Don't follow the light. Oh, that's good. Nice rhyme, I should have thought of that earlier."

Jack swallowed hard, eyes drawn to the laser-screwdriver that was tapping out the annoying, hypnotizing rhythm. "It's not a good one. Get out of here, Master."

"Oh, you said my name!" the Master exclaimed, he grinned, eyes crinkling and hiding the crazy light in his eyes. He affected a pleased air, putting far too much sweetness into it. Jack felt sick just looking at him. "I do love it when you say my name, Jackie boy." He suddenly clapped his hands together, making Jack jump. "So, what's on the menu for today, Freak? The boy going to die anytime soon, because, whoa!—annoying much?"

"You have room to talk!" Jack snapped, glaring at the smug figure of the Master.

"Only in your mind," the Master said, voice disarmingly friendly. He shrugged, "which, if you think about it, is where we are. Well, where I am, anyway."

"I don't care." Jack stuffed his hands in his pockets and focused his attention forward, ignoring the concerned looks his teammates and Ryan were giving him. He refused to give in to the Master, even if he wasn't real; it was the principle of the thing.

"No, of course you don't," the Master continued to chatter, tapping his laser-screwdriver against his other hand absently. "You wouldn't even care if they all dropped dead, hell, you _want _them too, don't you, Freak? You just _long _for them to die."

The tapping got louder and Jack resisted the urge to press his hands to his ears. It wasn't real, it wasn't. No one else could see him, Jack knew. Gwen and Ianto would recognize the dead former Prime Minster, Jack was sure. They'd been tasked with handling it, if he could remember properly. His mind was so fuzzy right now. He blinked his eyes harshly, trying to force the cotton-stuffed sensation away. He needed to focus right now, not listen to the pounding sound of drums. That wasn't right. Something wasn't right.

The blue line led them to a door. The pounding was getting louder. He couldn't stand this, he couldn't. They needed to go back. Back!

"Yes, see, listen to that, Jack." the Master cooed in his ear.

Jack jerked his head away and reached out for the door handle, hearing nothing but the incessant pounding and the muffled sound of human voices from behind him. He was sure Gwen and Ianto were kicking up a fuss, but he couldn't bring himself to care right at that exact moment. The Master had said not to open the door, so that's exactly what he should do. Open it. If only to piss off the narcissistic megalomaniac. Was that redundant? Jack couldn't really gather the facilities to work it out just then. All he could hear was the drums. Drums, drums, drums; drumming away without care for his mind and pounding the inside of his skull. His head hurt in places that were usually numb.

"No you know how I feel," the Master hissed, putrid breath filtering across Jack's nose. "Not so nice, is it, Freak?"

Jack felt his fingers close around the strange bow-shaped handle with an abstract sense of detached clarity. He could see it happening, knew that it was, but the pain in his head was consuming his every thought and action. He'd never hurt like this before. Gritting his teeth, Jack pulled at the ancient handle, praying distantly that it wouldn't simply tear off. The door groaned and the old hinges seemed to buckle before it came loose with a startling jolt. Jack stumbled backwards, not expecting it to give in so easily. He frowned, the pounding in his head only increasing for having opened the door.

"Oh, now you've gone and done it, you stupid ape!" the Master berated from Jack's right, voice clear as a bell. "You shouldn't have done that. Now the whole universe is gonna burst at the seams! Congratulations, Freaky, you've managed to single handedly destroy the world. Not even _I_ managed that, and that's saying something, don't you think?"

"Shut up," Jack muttered absently, walking boldly through the door way and into the glowing blue room.

The bacteria in the water coated the entirety of the room. The floors, ceiling, walls, everything was covered in the glowing blue alien bacteria. Jack spared a moment to admire the wonder of it through the muted haze of the drumming before walking to the mushroom shaped dais in the middle of everything. There were jagged, perfect lines with exact ninety degree angles running along the floor, emanating from the center and touching the walls evenly. They seemed to glow brighter than everything else around them. The lines were a strange mix of the purple fungus and the blue. Jack thought they were the most beautiful part of the entire room, but he didn't have time to dwell on it. The thrumming in his head prevented most conscious thought.

However, he didn't miss the strange, see-through tube floating ten feet in the air above the dais in a purple shaft of light. Jack could see a circular shaped device attached to the ceiling, radiating the light. It was obviously some sort of levitation field. The tube and field weren't what was important about the sight, though, it was what was in the tube. A winged man, with silvery skin and obsidian colored, feathered wings, was chained in the tube. His arms were stretched upwards, manacles around his wrists and ankles. His head was bowed and the only covering he had seemed to be half of a toga-like thing. Jack froze, staring up at him with no small amount of awe.

It was Deadalus.

In his blue box, or rather, room.

"Oh," Jack mumbled, discovery not quite registering in his fogged mind. "This must be what Barty meant. Deadalus fell from the sky, not Icarus."

Jack staggered towards the mushroom-shaped dais, giving it a brief once over as he did so. It was silver, reflecting the blue light of the walls and floor. Jack blinked harshly, trying to clear the blur from his vision. Looking at the same color of bright light tended to distort vision dangerously. Jack lost his footing just as he reached the dais, collapsing against it with a pained groan. He vaguely felt something trickle out of his nose and distantly noted that his nose was bleeding. He braced himself against the console, arms shoulder length apart and hands at awkward angles as they rested on the curvature of the mushroom head.

"Oh, shit," Gwen breathed, rushing up to the dais. She looked down frantically at it, not understanding any of the strange symbols etched onto its surface. "Jack, how do we work this? We can't just leave him floating up there!"

"Sure you can!" the Master cheerfully announced. He ignored Jack's pained groan. "You leave all sorts of things to die, what's one timeless myth added on to everything else?"

"Go away," Jack grunted, lifting his head to glare at the Master. "You aren't welcome here."

"Jack, who are you talking to? Who do you see?" Ianto asked worriedly, looking from the empty air to Jack again.

"No one," Jack replied through gritted teeth. He pulled in a deep breath, trying desperately to work around the pounding in his head. He looked up at Deadalus. "We need to get him outta there; he's the only one who can operate these controls."

"How did he get in there?" Ryan asked; jaw slack as he stared up at the encased man. "Who is he?"

"Deadalus," Gwen answered Ryan. "You remember the story about the boy with wax wings who flew to close to the sun? This is his father, Deadalus, the man who made the wings and told Icarus not to fly to close to the sun."

"Oh," Ryan mumbled, entranced by the sight of Deadalus floating in the tube. "He's an alien?"

"Yeah," Gwen replied, eyes locked onto the gruesome sight, "he is."

"I have to save him," Jack rambled, reaching out to press one of the circular buttons in the center of the mushroom-head. He pressed down as hard as he could, but no matter what he did, nothing seemed to happen.

Jack banged the console angrily with both fists and nearly lost his balance for his bout of temper. "Dammit! Work! I need to save him. I _need_ to save him!"

"Face the facts, Jack," the Master taunted. He smirked. "Ooh, I like that. Jack the Fact face the facts. Catchy, don't think? Never mind, moving on. Face the facts, Jack, you can't save anyone, anywhere or any-when. When are you gonna learn, Freak?"

"That would have carried more weight coming from the Doctor." Jack informed the hallucination snappily.

"Oh, really?" the Master said with a shrug and an easy look. "Fine, your wish is my command, Jackie boy."

The Master snapped his fingers dramatically and suddenly, where he used to be, the Doctor now stood, blue suit, brown over coat, wild hair and all. He stuffed his hands into his pant's pockets and rocked back and forth on his heels.

The Doctor cleared his throat. "Okay, so where were we? Oh, yeah, you can't save anyone Jack." He frowned comically and Jack found himself chuckling at the absurdity of it all. The Doctor set a stony expression on his face, eyes going hard and manner radiating resigned disappointment.

"You can't save _anyone_, Jack. Never could. Always had to do it for you, you're that sad." the Doctor sneered. "Now I know why I left you on Satellite Five. I don't tote around failures like you. You didn't measure up then and you don't measure up now. All of eternity and I'll never love you. How does _that_ feel, Jack the Fact? Does it hurt?"

Jack gasped, a pained noise escaping before he could stop it. "I know that. I know! But it doesn't matter, none of it does. Just get us out of here, Doctor, please!"

"Oh, you beg pretty," the Doctor faded away to be replaced by the Master. He smirked triumphantly. "Took quite a bit of work, but ooh, look Jack, I got you to beg for me. A year, do you believe it? Such a sense of accomplishment to go with this, don't you think?"

"It's not real!" Ianto shouted, grabbing Jack harshly by his shoulders. Ianto shook him forcibly. "Jack, focus on me. I'm real. _I'm_ real! Here, now, not wherever you are and not whoever you're talking to. Focus on me!"

"Ianto," Jack breathed. He forced himself into an upright position, drums chipping away at his skull. He looked up at Deadalus again. "We have to save him. Help me save him, please."

"I don't think we can, Jack." Ianto told him sadly. "He's been in there for thousands of years. Taking him out would most likely kill him."

"Exactly," Jack said hoarsely. He reached out and pounded the only red circle on the entire dais. "If I can't save him, I'll set him free. No one deserves to live like this."

Jack licked his dry lips and forced his right hand to press down on the pulsing dark red circle in the top of the console. He pressed down harshly, then screamed, the pain in his head exploding even though it seemed to him that it couldn't possibly get any worse. He collapsed onto the floor, the pain in his head taking over all of his thought functions. He could barely remember his own name, much less how to work an alien life-support system. Sparks exploded from the levitation plate in the ceiling, and suddenly, the tube Deadalus was encased in burst, glass flying everywhere and imbedding itself into the walls.

"Look what you've done now," the Master clicked his tongue and wagged his finger mockingly in Jack's face. He seemed smugger than Jack had ever seen him. The Captain wanted to brutally rip the expression from his face in a shower of violence and blood. "Naughty, naughty, Captain. Then again, telling you that could only make you hard for more. Perhaps, good doggie should be the phrase of choice. Of course, with you fifty-firsters, who can tell if you'd rather have the dog than a human being?"

"Piss off," Jack growled angrily; mustering all of the venom and contempt he could at the moment, which wasn't much. He wasn't sure if he even understood his own words. For all he knew he could have said, light the toaster.

"Oh, ladies and gents we have a live one!" the Master exclaimed, laughing as he did so. He grinned down at Jack, eyes cold and hard. "Think you can keep it going, Jackie boy? No?" he sighed dramatically. "Didn't think so. Humans. So pathetic, you lot."

Before Jack could continue his internal argument, a body impacted his upper back and shoulders. He shouted in pain, collapsing flat on the floor underneath wings and a cold, silvery body. He lay there, panting and groaning, lacking the energy to haul himself up. The pounding in his head had vanished the moment the cold body had landed on him. Jack swallowed hard and rolled over, the dead weight of Deadalus sliding off of him and onto the glowing blue floor. Jack turned his head and blinked blearily at the body, more surprised than he had been that entire day when the body blinked back.

Golden orbs stared out from half-lidded eyes.

"Thank you," the rough voice was issued forth from Deadalus' still form. He swallowed thickly, trying to wet his throat. His breath rattled in his chest and Jack knew he wouldn't last much longer. "Thank you. I didn't want to live like that. So this is my final farewell…"

His eyes slid fully shut and Jack just stared, chest moving steadily up and down as he looked on at Deadalus' now dead body. He could hardly believe what had just happened to him. Moaning softly, Jack pushed to his knees, thankful that the pounding in his head had vanished completely. He didn't think he could have stood another second of it. He brushed Deadalus' wing from his shoulder and pulling himself into a standing position, leaning against the console for support.

"Oh, wow," Ryan said, eyes wide and eyebrows climbing towards his hair line. He gulped. "Is-is he dead? I mean, really dead?"

Jack reached down and checked the body for breath. He didn't find any. "Yeah, he's dead, Ryan. I'm sorry."

"Oh," Ryan muttered. He ran out into the hallway and promptly threw up, unable to take the horrors he had witnessed in the space of fifteen minutes.

"Poor boy," Gwen sighed out. She watched on in silence as Ryan wiped his mouth then trudged back into the glowing blue room, studiously avoiding looking at the body lying on the floor. "Are you alright, Ryan?"

"Can I get back to you on that?" Ryan asked her sincerely.

Gwen nodded sadly. "Yeah, you can."

"Oh, how sickeningly sweet that is," the Master said derisively.

"Shut up," Jack snarled. He glared daggers at the Master. "You aren't real, leave me the hell alone!"

"But this is so fun!" the Master jovially informed Jack, hands pressed together in an imitation of a prayer. He fixed Jack with a pleading expression. "How can I stop?"

"Figure it out," Jack snapped at him. "I thought you were a genius?"

"Jack," Ianto said, warning obvious in his voice. "It's not real. Focus," he sighed and pointed to the console. "Now, how does that work?"

"Gwen, bring Ryan over here and stand within the silver circle. It's the only way to get back home." Jack instructed, turning his attention to the console.

"Jack, are you alright?" Gwen asked. She gently guided Ryan into the silver circle on the floor.

"Yeah, never better." Jack joked, eyes fluttering closed before he forced them open again. He focused on the console; steadfastly ignoring the apparition of the Master to his left.

"Liar," Ryan called him on it.

"Not for long," Jack told him with a smirk. He swallowed. "I'll be alright, Ryan. Don't worry about me."

"We all will, as soon as we get out of here," Ianto interrupted tersely, quite ready to go home.

Jack smiled and reached out, hand shaking and pressed the small thrumming silver vein in the middle of the dais. The console began to glow, the light bright against the background of blue. Jack squinted and turned his face away, not wanting his eyes to be completely burned out. He felt his body begin to pull apart, then everything went black for a short, frightening moment. He gasped, stumbling forward when the dais he was leaning on evaporated into the air. Jack stumbled, pitching forward and landing on his knees in the wet grass. He breathed in deep, fresh clean air assaulting his senses.

He blinked, blue eyes focusing on the brilliant clear sky and vibrant grass. The faint smell of rain clung to the air and the grass was still moist under his hands. The water seeped into the knees of his pants, staining them with green and bits of grass. He grinned, slowly pushing to his feet as the realization that they were home slowly sinking in. He turned, smiling to look at Gwen, Ianto and Ryan. They were all grinning and Ryan was still on his knees, trying his level best to hug the grass.

"Happy to be back?" Jack asked them, moving to walk towards their SUV, which he could see in the distance.

"I didn't think I'd ever kiss the floor." Ryan said, standing. He grinned widely at Jack. "Can I call my mum?"

"Yeah, you can. Ianto, do you have a phone?" Jack told him, amusement shining from his eyes.

"Here you go," Ianto tossed the phone to Ryan, who barely caught it before it hit the ground.

"Thank you," Ryan said, hurriedly dialing his phone number.

"What just happened?" Gwen asked, jogging to catch up to Jack as he walked towards the car. "One minute we were there, you were hurt, Deadalus was on the floor, then the next we weren't."

"Teleport," Jack answered her truthfully. "I was hallucinating, I think I was about to have a seizure. That room was designed to keep Deadalus locked away and to push people out so no one would get the bright idea of rescuing him. Did you feel it?"

"Yeah, I felt it." Gwen replied, looking disturbed. "I almost didn't make it into the circle in time." She paused, thinking. "What would you have done if I didn't make it, Jack? Would you have gone back?"

Jack frowned over at her, confused by the question. "Of course, why would you ask me that?"

Gwen gave him an incredulous look. "With the way you were before, Jack, I'm surprised you came after me at all."

"Is this the part where I apologize profusely?" Jack asked her, looking even more confused.

Gwen laughed. "After nearly two centuries on Earth and you still haven't figured that out yet, Jack?"

"I'll take that as a yes?" He said cheekily. He sighed. "Consider that an apology, Gwen. You know me, I don't usually say that."

"My mum will be here soon." Ryan informed them, interrupting the conversation. He pulled the fob watch from his pocket. "Should I give this to you? To give back to the Doctor?"

"Huh?" Jack said intelligently. He shook his head, frowning at Ryan. "Why would you give me that?"

"Grandpa wanted to give it back to him." Ryan informed them in the solemn way children have about them. "He wanted me to pass it along until it got back to the Doctor. He believed it would, one day. You know the Doctor, you can give it back."

Ryan thrust the watch at Jack, hand held open as he stared into Jack's blue eyes. He seemed to be imploring the Captain to take it from him. Ryan swallowed hard, obviously fighting with himself to hand it over in the first place.

"I owe you." Ryan finally said after it became apparent that Jack wasn't going to take the watch. "You saved me. My parents are never going to know, but I will. I always will. Even if I don't want to remember some of it. And maybe, someday, you can tell the Doctor about Grandpa and give him back this watch. Grandpa wanted that. Take it, please. I have to do this for my Grandpa."

"Go on, Jack," Gwen encouraged, eyes kind. She smiled softly. "He wants you to have it, to do what he can't. Go on, take it."

"But—it means a lot to you." Jack protested. He shook his head. "I can't take it, Ryan."

Ryan grinned. "Yes, you can," he shook his hand gently. "Go ahead. Give it back to him, Mr. Jack."

Jack took in a deep breath and carefully took the watch from Ryan's open hand. He held it up to his face, looking closely at it, then smiled. He could feel something, just a glimmer, that faded then got stronger the longer he held it. It was as if the Doctor was passing through time close to this watch, close to him, just for a moment. Jack felt his smile turn fond as he pocketed the watch, giving Ryan a thankful look. The boy really had no idea what he had just done, or why, but he had done it. Jack reached out and ruffled his hair, grinning when Ryan made a noise of protest.

"Thank you," Jack told him sincerely. "I mean it. I'll give it back to him, one day, when he's ready to get it back. You have my word, Ryan."

"One day, after the Bad Wolf has gone on its way." Ryan said, eyes sparkling. "I get to go home soon."

"Bad Wolf?" Jack quoted, happy mood plummeting the distance to the core of the Earth in less than a second. "Where did you hear that? Bad Wolf?"

"Everything has its season." Ryan replied, voice sounding oddly mature all of the sudden. "Bad Wolf returns."

"Bad Wolf returns? What do you mean she returns?" Jack demanded voice tight with emotion.

"She is returning." Ryan told him, eyes going glassy. Suddenly, he brightened, as if nothing had ever happened. "I'm sorry, what did you say Mr. Jack?"

"I said--"

"Ryan!" a high-pitched female voice interrupted Jack's question.

"Mum!" Ryan exclaimed, turning around and running towards his mother. She grabbed him in a hug and carried him off, leaving the Torchwood team to stand there and watch him leave.

It was a comfortable silence as they walked back towards their vehicle. Gwen paused, hand on the door handle and looked over to the hood of the car at Jack. "Jack," she started slowly, "what's Bad Wolf? What does it mean?"

"I haven't heard that in years," was Jack's cryptic reply as he climbed into the SUV. He fingered the watch in his coat pocket. "I think I have a phone call to make."

With that, he started the car, put it in gear, then pressed down on the gas. The SUV sped out of the parking lot, spraying gravel as it went. Ianto turned his head and rested it against the window as they drove away. He didn't know the entire story, but Jack had told him enough. The Gamestation, Rose Tyler, the Doctor and Bad Wolf. Rose was a paradox and created herself, leaving clues throughout all time and space. Perhaps, they had just found a remnant, the last little bit of a dead woman in this reality. Ianto sighed. He'd never understand time travel, no matter how hard he tried.

With that resolve, Ianto closed his eyes and prayed for sleep to come. He couldn't remember ever being this tired. Tired and hopeful, he thought with a vague smile. Jack had held his hand…

El Fin

* * *

And everyone said; "The End!" So, what'dya think? Well, lemme know, 'cause I really wanna know. Review! And farewell (for now)...


End file.
